All those who have been wronged
for so many years, even generations,
lift up their voices. It is their time
to howl and howl. It is their time
to be heard.

The hearing is like
the tiny infiltration of water
into the face of rock.
It will bide its time —
it does not need to be a multitude.

In the mundane roll of seasons
it will freeze, and that expansion
will crack the rock,
and in the thaw
it will sink down deeper,
and one year suddenly
a whole cliff side may shear off
and fall, and bounce, and shatter.

Hear these ones who howl
for the whole mountain
is coming down.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 24, 2017