The smallest girl
in the wild kid’s gang
submitted her finger
to his tomahawk idea –

It hurt bad, dropping off.
He knew he’d gone too far
and ran, herding the others.
Later on, he’d maim her brother.

She stayed in the bush
till sundown, wrote
in blood on the logs, and
gripped her gapped hand, afraid

what her parents would say
to waste of a finger.
Carelessness. Mad kids.
She had done wrong some way.