“We never knew closer / sisters, stronger trees, / tighter clans, wilder / fires. Where can we / go if not to each other, / resenting every step?” Brenda Shaughnessy

         taste any justice
         oxygen from water 
then study in         of pain

when and wariness—illustrate the why
situational italics when wise 
rubbed to a head—includes 
experienced painkillers
         focused on what would be a       
reflex animal subject
of frozen birds rattling / in the cold 
inflicted on the what and wariness—illustrates who
         rise for example 

research exceeding response 
rather than responding
         their ways 
         studied   pain   

and profited, biblically, 
acetic acid         of nociceptors 
or behave nervous
         their taxonomic class is neophobic 
meaning those researchers evidence         

whatever sits / counting the minutes 
till you die
who were in pain 
         respond

Contains fragments from Amiri Baraka's "The Liar".