10

Why does one day, so full of trouble
Press so hard against the next
Just to leave it undisturbed,
Even more disturbingly troubled?

Why does hawk and spider hover
Above blind chick, the naive fly;
The lion in clandestine cover
Wait to draw in catch after catch?

There are men part hawk, part chick,
Who play both roles of spider, fly;
Say: "No one watches what I do,
"No one counts my fallen.

"I'm a man who knows what he wants
"And I know how to get it!
"There's no one here: none to fear."
(He never contemplates the worm.)

Sing then, sing! I said to myself,
Tones that brace in nest and womb;
That make the fatherless fathers of men
And more than men, but fathers again.


© Dan Goorevitch, 1998