by Katherine West
New Sites Uncovered Beneath Stonehenge
New Bombings in Baghdad
New Super-Size Baby Born in Mexico
And I think about Whoppers and Big Macs
And the mother split in half—
They don’t mention the mother that
Isn’t News News is bombs made
By groups of men who hate
Each other all the casualties
Should be doubled to include
The mothers who knew all about
“The Stonehenge Mystery” a long
Time ago published book
After overlooked book
On the Goddess Culture the Great
Mother How many henges are there?
Hundreds but it doesn’t count if
It doesn’t have a point pyramids
And empire are News
Henges belong to the Goddess of Death
And Regeneration the solstice
Funeral feast the end and
The beginning in one
Life death life and the bearded
Archaeologist grins and proclaims
The mystery “solved” never mentions
The mothers who fold their primitive
Arms over their embarrassing
Bellies knowing bombs
Are seeds for new life and I
Watch the sun set behind Stonehenge
On my computer screen
And I wish
I believed
Katherine West is a poet presently living in northern Colorado and teaching Creative Writing at the local community college, museum, and Naropa University, which is in nearby Boulder, Colorado.