trees fail us everyday /
why have you not stopped that distant war? /
why did you let that daughter die at midnight? /
why did you not blow that virus the other way? /
why did you not change that red light sooner? /
why did you not hide that knife behind the couch? /
why did you not move the president closer to the window? /
why did you not pull the rainbow apart to feed hungry children? /
why did you not drag the river’s current backward to pool all the salmon at our feet? /
why did you not block the sun on that feverish day when every object was whispering? /
why did you not tangle your roots around the water main on new year’s day thirst? /
why did you not fall across that old evolutionary path that led to shrink-wrap and memorandums of understanding? /
why didn’t you speak your mind when you first felt that two-legged crawl? /
why didn’t you rest your arms on our flat foreheads driving us back into the soil? /
why didn’t you bow a little longer?
Categories