by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor

Even the Sun directs our gaze away from
itself and to the life illumined by it.
─ Eberhard Arnold

The Sun himself is weak when he first rises and
gathers strength and courage as the day gets on.
─ Charles Dickens

The day of the Sun is like the day of a king.
It is a promenade in the morning,
a sitting on the throne at noon,
a pageant in the evening.
  ─ Wallace Stevens

To read Irene’s new poem “Why Doesn’t the Sun Bleed” click:

Why Doesn’t the Sun Bleed

by Irene Fowler

Scary, cruel or unjust; If it bleeds it leads
The daily gospel of major news-feeds
Ergo; if the sun is life, and life is blood
Why doesn’t the sun bleed.

**

Streets of rivers of spilled blood
Hazmat, clean up crews at the ready
For a grim job all too dependable and steady
Why doesn’t the sun bleed.

**

When soldiers on deadly battlefields
Empty their life’s finite red pool
Every human a priceless, precious, jewel
Why doesn’t the sun bleed.

**

If the rain pours down unstopped
And the snow falls in perfect drops
While, huge, angry hailstones, shell and shock
Why doesn’t the sun bleed.

**

Ruthless world leaders; all mad-clowns
Flaunt their vile, reprobate crowns
Self-aggrandize, yet masses choke, splutter and drown
Why doesn’t the sun bleed.

**

Depraved, cankered, greedy capitalism
In lockstep with odious, vile despotism
Stoking toxic flames of concocted schism, tribalism and racism
Why doesn’t the sun bleed.

**

Polar bears skating on melting, fragile ice-sheets
Monarch butterflies, unable to aptly breed
Red pandas, white rhinos, lions, tigers; precious species impeded
Why doesn’t the sun bleed.

**

Divine authority and life force
The supreme cosmic power
Royal orb of splendour and brightness
And watcher of humanity
Why doesn’t the blood-red sun bleed?

**

© 2022 by Irene Fowler