Interrogatives

Who? The stickleback fish can answer this,
with their scarlet, wedding-gown raiment of scales, and sensual undulations
that select a proper mate.

What is a relative of who.
A bear sniffs a leaf pile for its answer to hunger.

Where is answered by the echos of high-pitched bat shrieks.

When makes geese restless to flap their wings and fly South.

But why.
What creatures ask why?

Elephants perhaps have an inkling
as they wrap their trunks around their ancestors' bones
and trumpet to the sky.
Chimpanzees move their lips and almost utter why,
as they howl and shake sticks at oncoming thunderstorms.

But it's a child who first asks why,
and thereafter is cursed, blessed with generations of restless whys.

When the last why is answered, whatever that last why is,
whoever answers will also answer the last where,
it's a place without children.

 Richard Fein

If you've any comments on this poem, Richard.Fein would be pleased to hear from you.