POLITICAL Poem: God showed mercy and fulfilled justice by killing his innocent son, by Mary K Gowdy

Don’t get me wrong, it matters greatly
who wins this election, but my God calls me
to love my neighbor, even those who hurt
the ones they should love enough to fight for.
When the drowning wonder if God does not hear their cries,
they should ask instead why we have not responded to them
except to mail our condolences. They’ll crawl to shore,
our paper prayers crumbled and washed away. They’ll know
of nothing in their hands but will remember
every scorch of salt down their throats. When they stand,
they’ll show no mercy
because they cannot know what they were never taught.
They learned from our polite smiles
that kindness diminishes your spine
so the real players can pick away your vertebrae
till the Jenga tower falls.
They’ll rage, undo, and change the game
but never rebuild as they seek
to burn the wood in our hands.

Don’t get me wrong, it matters greatly
who wins this election, but my God tells me
that everyone is my neighbor and to love them
As if they were my own flesh.
We can’t keep shipping them off-brand bandages
after we give the knife to the ones who slice their skin.
We should love them so much we bleed, tell them:
grab our clothes,
grab our hair,
grab our bones,
and we will pull you from the water.

Author: poetryfest

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