RECKONING

 

It will have to rain 
for another one hundred years 
to wash the taste of the blood 
out of the earth 

the dead will rise first 
and the living will wonder why 
they themselves are so pale 
at the sight of the Rider in white 

and for every injustice there will be 
a tablespoon of gold-leaf water 
for the living to drink, 
drowning in justice for the dead. 

By Heidi Turner