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.