Brothers Black Black Blood

On hot summer noons

When school bells sing their lunchtime tunes

Memories of mine steal me back

To something bitter and black

Children singing ring a rosie things

They have a melody and a sting

"Your baby brothers dead,

"He lays upon a pool of blood"

"He lays upon a pool of black black blood"

"Your Baby brothers dead"

I run like mad to a spot nearly blind

Tiny fingers my guide

Its there I find a shine on the road of pain

Something that would make a strong man insane

Blackness spreads like water should

It stops me dead the way a bitter taste could

I bend and stoop my childs knee

Wondering if this monster really could be

Fingers point and tenderly touch

And as my tears fall like rain, I know the pain will be too much

Blackness that lifts away sticky red

From the place where my baby brother had lay dead

Fleet of foot and carrying fear like cold stone

I race to the shelter of my home

I find the sun burns and falls

It blossoms on the wine bottle tall

The fan turns a slow smooth and the scented oranges are bright with color

But my soul has turned gray, not a sign of my mother

And each day since

A tear escapes my glimpse

When school bells sing their lunchtime tunes

Since I found my brother dead to soon

His black black blood on my scrubbed raw fingers, still a stain

From that long long road of pain

Gunner©