Poetry

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Like Dust

They make it look so easy Lord
In their Cadillacs
And Ford Expeditions

just be faithful
and He will be faithful to you
That's what they say

When we lay on your altars
Broken from poverty
When the fridge is empty

And we pass them at Wendy's
After church

We drive right by
Wonder why

Are they more faithful?

What did we do wrong?
There isn't a song for this story

No clinging to the cross
No standing on the blood
Just mud

On our white robes
Where they wiped their feet
On our back

Defeat

You are God
We are not
We forgot
Why we're here

No good cheer
Praises lost from our lips
As the grip
Of poverty
Blinds our vision

We can't see
Calvary
At your altars

So we falter
fatherless

Abandoned

Betrayed
Hope delayed

Just a little
Self-pity and shame
When you whisper our name
In the night

We turn away
And go to sleep

This valley
Stretching forth
Like a never ending desert
Consuming our desire

To live

So we crumble
Like dust
As we stumble

Lost in poverty
You can see us
Yet You wait

They say
To test our faith
To see
What we will do

You have seen

If this is a test
Of our faith

Then, we flunked.

-ann sanborn
2002

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