A term used figuratively at first and coined
becomes in time an apt description
You learn this when you listen to The Dead
What did they do with the carcass once it had burned for days in sacrifice to Yahweh or Jehovah
or of the people burning that long decade in sacrifice to the Third Reich
or of native brothers and sisters burning for a century of gold in sacrifice to the Greater Glory of Spain
or of my own brothers and sisters still burning to the core NOT BREATHING (hear them: “I can’t breathe”) hung up on display for half a millennium in sacrifice to Making Money in America
Listen to The Dead and you will know
Ancient Palestine I have begun to realize must have held a public barbecue
and fed the hungry poor of Israel with the inferior flesh of the ram or ox or steer
like alms to honor Yahweh or Jehovah
But there the analogy ends at least for me
for the poor have feasted and the poor feast yet on meals other than semi-sapid mammals
both quadripeds and bipeds
on the grill
O listen to The Dead please my friend
Still notwithstanding that the name of Whom To Propitiate has changed over millennia till today
Holocaust
seems an accurate description
And what else can a poet do but grab the aptest word
and what else should a poet do but share it now with you
For if In the beginning was
in fine in fact
the word
a right word might invoke a right reaction
which might in turn make for a good beginning
I say this with all confidence and hope knowing full well you may call me fool
But now you know that I at least have learned to listen
to The Dead
James B. Nicola is a returning contributor to Black Works and the author of eight collections of poetry, the latest being Fires of Heaven (2021), Turns & Twists (2022), and Natural Tendencies (2023). His nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice magazine award. Born right before Halloween, he is used to black birthday balloons (just for the “hell” of it, so to speak).
Previously published in Lowestoft Chronicle.