By the Numbers

1 The first day of the second month during the second year of liberation, 
2 already the accounting of Numbers starts with conscripting men. 
3 Men, made to fall in line, come forward. 
4 When they stand, say what of their names besides their count?
5 Say nothing of the radicals made among them that day
6 choosing to change their name, kneel, and raise their fist in defiance. 
7
8 The record of yesteryear and internet news tomorrow 
9 says only one thing of those protesting slaughter for hire:
10 they are delivered, nonetheless, into death -- 
11 rounded up, pushed into the pagus borderlands, always made to fight,
12 intimidated, coerced to speak, put to labor when they refuse, 
13 sprayed with fire hoses, heads forcibly shaved,
14 and made to march or be run down with dogs by men of the polis.
15
16 No matter the kingdom, the women cry out to God, who gives his only son
17 as debt paid for every sin of every father but who will not change history.
18 Unseen by hands counting heads today and coins tomorrow,
19 made to drink bitter wine, hidden in cellars, voiceless in the history of God’s bloody will – 
20 women fleeing with babes in tears – Black Madonnas –
21 speak a final, grand soliloquy,  a new accounting
22 for the sacrificed sons they cannot save,
23 accused of sedition against God’s word.

7.21.17