“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".
