by Tucker Kennedy Lieberman
on Eden, men broke the Tigris
and Euphrates backbone, bitterness
flows from the voice of men, and it was men
who looted a heart already dry.
Forensics found under their nails the fiber
and dust of everything ever made by women.
We blocked the way back with swirling swords
in a maze of sparks and rubble.
The garden is leveled,
the Christians do battle,
the Muslims are trodden,
the Jews do not know, bewildered
under palm trees, hands toward Zion.
Who has faith that women
will be treated better than
the tablets of clay,
the staff that struck,
the stylus of the psalmist,
the first poem to yell on stone,
the first logos to create,
the black gold flaming,
the pallor of grief,
the thirst of darkness?
Ten righteous people
cannot be found in all the world.
~
Copyright © 2007 - Tucker Kennedy Lieberman
Published: 12/27/07 · Author's Page · Next Poem