Villagers

• With a kingdom of...

  close relatives
• or is it fairer to say equipped?...

  with sticks and staves, and meaner implements
• we're not...

  hurtful people, hereabouts
• the mood was...

  murderous
• the whole encounter was...

  transformed by blood
• we are the beneficiaries of...

  nature's dowry
• fire setter should expect...

  to have his ears cut off and be hoisted by the gibbet
• so, let the pigs...

  complete what they've begun
• we in this village walk around...

  in blinded ignorance
• the knots that tie us...

  to this tranquil place are loosening
• the loudest voices are the ones that...

  want to arm themselves with sticks and blades
• all four at once,

  like cattle in one heard
• those serving fellows kept us...

  waiting at the porch like dogs and horses
• there isn't one of us -...

  no them - who's safe
• a farmer knows...

  to gate the herd before he hunts the stray
• they'll lay a hearth; ...

  they know the custom and the law
• Wheat, like men and women...

  benefit from being crushed
• there's no one there to witness them or...

  to blame them for their violence.
• then all I know is, there's a...

  sudden rush. the others jostle in
• our arsonists, judged it best to pack and go before...

  their secrets were uncovered
• so we are all _ tonight

  so we are all conspirators tonight
• reap and gossip. ...

  that's the rule
• rather than speak up, they turned ...

  their anger on the pigeons and the rooks
• undeserving ...

  meat
• protective of our modest world and ...

  fearful for our skinny lives
• just like rooks we have begun ...

  to sound and look the same