Feast Day

Almost at the end of the century

this is the time of the pain of the bears

their agony goes on at this moment

for the amusement of the wedding guests

though the bears are harder to find by now

in the mountain forests of Pakistan

they cost more than they used to which makes it

all the more lavish and once they are caught

their teeth are pulled out and their daws pulled out

and among the entertainments after

the wedding one of them is hauled in now

and chained to a post and the dogs let loose

to hang on its nose so that the guests laugh

at the way it waves and dances and those

old enough to have watched this many times

compare it with other performances

saying they can tell from the way the bear

screams something about the children to be

born of the couple sitting there smiling

you may not believe it but the bear does

Copyright World Poetry, Incorporated May/Jun 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved