Cappadocian Song

What shall the poor girls do
When men are gone warring?
Long shadows run us through
And fork us at morning.

The barley stalk breaks in the field,
The little mice play on the road.

What’s worse than a mad king?
Cambyses killed his brother,
Darius heard a bee sing,
Xerxes ate clover.

The barley stalk breaks in the field,
The little mice play on the road.

Millions they took away,
My own, my sister’s.
Now the old crones say
They’re over the waters.

The barley stalk breaks in the field,
The little mice play on the road.

Does hunger fill my eye?
Dust fills the meadow.
We were born at the end of time
In the moon’s shadow.

The barley stalk breaks in the field,
The little mice play on the road.

Comrade Women—

you with hayseed in your hair and the sweat runneling
between your tits—to you I say, my dears—
but quietly and with my smallest smile—
never fear, we’re going to do this job,
we’re going to leave this field as clean and functional
and tidy as your grandmother’s great four-posted
feather-bed in Beulah Land. And tonight
we’ll wash our faces in the cool water of the common pool.