Mother Revolution

The birthing was hard
Heat and starvation
Fatigue and fear
Who could claim fatherhood of her progeny?
Even she did not know
Painters and Poets and Rebels
Philosophers of heart and tree
There are some who consider such growth a virus
Plague
Uncontrolled, rampant
She did not believe it such
The birthing was hard but quiet
And the neighbors remarked upon her grace and strength.

The families of three houses
Having played midwife
Went muttering into the night
Regarding their lack of recompense.

But oh, her children were delighted
And the neighbors smiled indulgently
And she delighted in her children
Their songs to her
Their festivals
They made a new faith
A new world in her name.

All her children
Of all, she loved sweet Max the most
With his rich little voice and bright eyes
The others followed him
He led their games and parties
Designed to make her laugh and clap her hands.

And the neighbors were so impressed
"What obedient children!" they exclaimed.

They brought her food
And she grew fat
And each day hungrier
More, she cried
And more they brought
More, she wailed
And some of her children tearfully fled, away from her gnashing.

But Max, loving Max
Stroked her hair and fed her more.

Maybe she did not notice
Her peaceful smile was filled with razor teeth
A guillotine maw for masticating
Her fingers grew long and gnarled
Everyday her stomach growled.

And the neighbors whispered amongst themselves
And hid her frightened orphans.

Blinded by her hunger-filled rage and need and inertia
More, she whispered to Max
I love you, he smiled
She hungered and did not see
Her children disappearing into the gleam of her mouth.

She devoured her children
One after the other
Max said it was a game
A party, a festival
A feast
And they skipped and danced
And screamed and cried
And their autumn silence outweighed
Their songs of summer.

Chew and suck and bite
The great tragedy
Her mind was filled with the orgiastic violence of want
Always, always she cried for more
Swallowing her own precious children.

And the neighbors heard in horror
Her children's terror caught on red mist winds.

They called her mad
...She probably was.

More, she called and when
Max could find no more, she ate him too
He who'd served his brothers and sisters
To satiate her demands.

Finally
All her children gone
Eaten or hiding, adopted by new mothers
Creating new families
She collapsed, opening her eyes again
Her wail was long and shook the seas
Gouges in the wall looked like scars
And she stared at her own twisted claws and Knew
And she saw the bubbling streams
The ones that carried dreams and hopes everywhere
Now dammed up with the corpses of her children
She tasted blood in her mouth and she Knew.

She lay down and wanted to die
And instead she slept and dreamed.

She dreamed of a song
An Orphic sonnet of love and truth and beauty
And everyone believed.

And she remembered a war
Drums and paper and rope
A battle fought with ideas
Of truth and reason
And entitlement
And everyone believed

And she remembered feeding
Tears and death and betrayal
Her children vanishing
Sliding down a blood-lubed gullet
Her house degenerating into lice and snakes and hawks
And nobody
Believed
Anymore.

And there she stayed
Weeping in her fitful sleep
Until he came
And he sang her a new song
Not just of her house, but all the neighbors
All the world
A world of equality
Everyone would be the Same before the Absolute that was him
And she believed
And he promised to carry her with him
Everywhere, always
And she'd never want for anything
And she believed
He told her that her children who were all gone
Had never loved her as much as he did
And he would hand her the world
And she believed

And she hungered.