Poetry

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A pastor asked me
to think about, write about
ponder the decision
the change in course
inexorably to the edge of the pit
staring down into the abyss
down to Sheol
when we thought torture
was the right response
to terror

A rush of poems met the charge
and this one too, a few days down
struggling to understand the enormity
the irreconcilable change
in our nation’s place
in the world, for that fateful turn

Oh that we could put this genie back
into the bottle, to reverse time
and undo those moments of madness
recklessness, to put the lid back
onto Pandora’s Box,
to put the apple back on the tree

But we cannot now
no more than
those actors
while they
were on the stage

May history judge us more kindly
than these

June 20, 2007 19:42
Psalm 42 & 43
See Alive Now’s daily devotion for today
at: http://www.upperroom.org/alivenow/daily.asp

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