Two Kings

The little boys deserved death.

They mocked while he walked –

“Baldy! Baldy!”

They jeered and fleered

and laughed

while he warmed his great heart to

burning with imaginings:

children screaming, children bleeding,

children wailing for lost limbs.

He fantasized the example made,

or dreamed, or hoped, or prayed,

or cursed (which most translators prefer),

and God heard Elisha, and

“Then two she-bears came out of the woods

and tore forty-two of the boys to pieces.”

(That’s the Good News Translation.)