Why? Was the cry Spluttering from each choking throat Above them in the mist They spied the man Who had foretold this moment Hands pointing Voices screamed There! He’s the one! United in their hatred Baying in one rhythm Of familiar loathing They ran upon the hill Into the mist Searching desperately For one last lie To absolve them A Catholic confession Relieving all responsibility Instead of the fool They found a tree They tore at it To expose a hollow shell They burned the tree And the tree burned them Smoke rose into fetid air Rising from their rotting bodies To join the incoming cloud Overwhelmed with sorrow Only for themselves Not for what They had done Not for the birds Falling from the air Not for the grass Dying beneath their tread They had believed The false promise worshipped false idols believed their way of living would last for ever However long The unheeded countdown had lasted This was the end of it The Child gathered the tree’s ashes With her last strength She cast them into the air To be carried In her dying dream To float out Far into A benign universe Where homo sapiens Could not reach To place their poisonous step ‘The sea and all she holds was his lover, his mother, the womb from which all life was born....’
