“But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;”
Job 12:7
In the hours before the sun reveals
The stains of our assaults upon the earth,
I pause and listen to the silent sky
Listen with me to the unheard cry
The stains of our assaults upon the earth,
The grief of honeybees and mother wolves:
Listen with me to the unheard cry
Of innocents in bondage to our greed.
The grief of honeybees and mother wolves
The lonely calves in their darkened crates
These innocents in bondage to our greed
Wonder when the sun will shine again
The lonely calf stands in a darkened crate
Silent but speaking to us all
He wonders when the sun will shine on him
Like it did when he was new and free.
Silent but speaking to us all,
Their blood washes through the floor,
Conveyor belts carrying what’s left
In the hours that the sun reveals.
(c) Judith Evans 2021
