Teach Your Daughters How to Wail

From the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal

Teach Your Daughters How to Wail

“...Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses; it has removed the children from the streets, and the young men from the public squares.” - Jeremiah 9:20-21

The daughters are wailing. The daughters 
are wailing again, again. The daughters are kneeling 
the daughters are falling the daughters can’t stand 
in their feet anymore can’t stand in their skin 
in their bones in their souls anymore. The daughters 
are shrieking and wailing and begging and gasping 
the daughters are out of words. The daughters 
are wailing and watching their babies their babies 
are wailing until they are silent. The silence is deadly 
the silence is deadly the silence is death 
where there should have been singing. The daughters 
are wailing are wailing are weary of waiting are hoarse 
on their knees they are wailing and wailing the daughters 
are many the daughters are one. The daughters are holding 
the limp bodies of sons under crosses, the daughters 
are growing in numbers and wailing to wake 
the dead. Wake the dead. Wake the dead.