Where to turn when the truth burns our retina

By Sarah Bigham

 

down

down

down

they

fall

 

face-planted                spread-eagled              side-sprawled              knee-buckled

skull-cracked               gut-shot                       arm-splayed                gaping-mouthed

 

tears                fall

and hopes                    fall

and families on coffins            fall

and believers on knees                        fall

and children’s dreams of fathers’ pride          fall

 

but fists rise and knees bend and

arms link and eyes memorize and

voices boom and feet                                                                         M   A   R   C   H

for we have not forgotten how to                                                       M   A   R   C   H

as we chew on the hardtack of history and                                        M   A   R   C   H

as an apology to the children

who bear the inheritance

of this                                                                                      f

a

l

l

i

n

g

 


Sarah Bigham teaches, paints, and writes in Maryland, where she lives with her kind chemist wife, their three independent cats, and an unwieldy herb garden. Her work appears in Bacopa, Entropy, Fourth & Sycamore, Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine, The Quotable, Rabbit, and elsewhere. Visit her website at www.sgbigham.com.

Photo credit: .tafo. via a Creative Commons license.