Poison (part 9)

Author: Stephen W. Cote

Under the sun

- the farmer plows on

Tapestries stained with mud

- hang behind his unborn sun

With weathered, leathered hands

- the plow etches the earth

Somewhere in the stars or desert sand

- the scales weighed his worth

Under a tempermental moon

- the farmer's wife cries

She sleeps past primal peace, but soon

- awakes to Gabriel's trumpet's sigh

The barren fields and her fertile womb

- mean no freedom from the prison

She steeples her hands and prays past noon

- thankful for what she's been given

Under the sun

- you taste your bread

The fork is held like an empty gun

- you don't eat meat, you'd said

The wheat and grain pour, evermore

- from farmers with empty wallets

Then comes the smile to your chef, the grin of a whore

- poison, that's what we call it