My Question

Why don't bells toll

My brother's heart broke
in four pieces
and he is dead in El Paso

The rest of the town mourns:
the Rio Grande's gone dry
gamecocks won't fight
red chilis don't burn

rattlesnakes defanged
scorpions retired

police are in a coma
Larry McMurtry's left Texas

So why don't bells toll
from the poor stucco church

where Brother prayed by the hour
and his tears flooded the pews

Notes

McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.