The Lascaux Bulls

we keep our fears : in a small cave : where sometimes huddled : in together : one of us dares : to commit : our feelings : to permanence : we see : ourselves much : smaller than the animals : that would die : or kill : great hooves : horns : against our spears : we use the blood : of the fallen : as part : of our memory : we knew : only the mouth : the eye : the heart : the bone : before we : brought our tongues : to paint : here we : share our observations : how antelope herd : bulls charge : the horse rears : this is what we know : of ourselves too : inside us : shadows grew : much longer : then we could see : our fear : we know it : shared : on this finite wall

J. P. Dancing Bear is editor for the American Poetry Journal and Dream Horse Press. He is the author of fourteen collections of poetry, most recently, Cephalopodic (Glass Lyre Press, 2015), and Love is a Burning Building (FutureCycle Press, 2014). His work has appeared or will shortly in American Literary Review, Crazyhorse, DIAGRAM and elsewhere.

The Ages of Fear and Respect
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