pig! your screams are music to our ears, from Bella & Shirley by pd lyons

 

pig! your screams are music to our ears.

they had found him still alive.

they had pulled off all his clothes and the clothes of the dead men too

piled some of the filthy rags on his lap.

they had cleaned the corpse of the woman,

laid on branches of evergreen

bruises and broken skin

a few feet from where he was tied to the tree.

they had taken the rag away from his mouth

they had set the nest of rags on his lap on fire

slow smoldering greasy fire

every once in a while when some bit for some reason burned brighter

or faster the heat would make him scream.

there were a half a dozen women around him.

the youngest maybe 15? the eldest – a tuff old grandmother who spat

when she said again

– Pig! Scream go on scream it is music to us!

she came to speak with us….

and in speaking with us she spoke so all could hear

to thank us

to say she did not know the dead woman

to say that it was good for the younger ones

that we had left this Pig alive

so they could see

so they could know

no matter how much guns

no matter how much cruelty

they scream like broken animals

animals broken by the strength of women.

then more quiet she explained where they were headed…