bombs
Not torture
Not prayers of the faithful
On either coast
In the land of former immigrants and savages
There’s a church on every corner
Hallelujah and amen
We pray you will bless our survival
Our endurance
Our weaponry
The Lord reigneth forever and ever
So says the Psalm
Get on the right side, Sister
Our courts overflow
With tales of terrorists
And infidels who wish us dead
At the same time
They besiege our gates
Innocent
And eager to arrive
The wicked go down to the realm of the dead, All the nations that relinquish God
The evangelicals
And the fundamentalists
Insist we will be judged for our iniquity
To be specific:
Homosexuality
Abortions
Lesbians running for office
Embryos are the face of God
The believers say
As they bomb women and children in Iraq
Afghanistan
Somalia
The world in pieces
The mind of man shattered into insanity
God will not forget the needy, says the Psalm
Even as they perish
Strike our enemies with terror, Lord
We praise your contradictions
Your complexity
Your absence
Forever and ever
Amen
Psalm Ten
1 Why standest thou afar off, O God?Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?2 In the pride of the wicked the poor is hotly pursued;Let them be taken in the devices that they have conceived.3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire,And the covetous renounceth, yea, contemneth God.4 The wicked, in the pride of his countenance, saith, He will not require it.All his thoughts are, There is no God.5 His ways are firm at all times;Thy judgments are far above out of his sight:As for all his adversaries, he puffeth at them.6 He saith in his heart, I shall not be moved;To all generations I shall not be in adversity.7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression:Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.8 He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages;In the secret places doth he murder the innocent;His eyes are privily set against the helpless.9 He lurketh in secret as a lion in his covert;He lieth in wait to catch the poor:He doth catch the poor, when he draweth him in his net.10 He croucheth, he boweth down,And the helpless fall by his strong ones.11 He saith in his heart: God hath forgotten;He hideth his face, he will never see it.12 Arise, O God; O God, lift up thy hand:Forget not the poor.13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God,And say in his heart, Thou wilt not require it?14 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, To requite it with thy hand:The helpless committeth himself unto thee;Thou hast been the helper of the fatherless.15 Break thou the arm of the wicked;And as for the evil man, seek out his wickedness till thou find none.16 God is King for ever and ever:The nations are perished out of his land.17 God, thou hast heard the desire of the meek:Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear;18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed,That man who is of the earth may be terrible no more.
The prosperity gospel is a billion-dollar industry
God wants us to be rich
Bitch
Jesus died on the cross, didn’t he?
The down day of all time
He also rose from the dead
As the story goes
Iridescent
Ready to rule
Conclusion: it’s all good news
The law of attraction
Yes Ma’am
I’ve got resurrection written on my chest
In the meantime
Police shoot black men in the back
His cell phone looked like an Uzi
Said the shooter
Swear to God
The president boasts he’s very rich
As the drones of our democracy
Bombard weddings in Afghanistan
Evidently a mistake
Focus on the higher goal
Freedom
And universal suffrage
With God there is success
States the blue-eyed beneficiary of European DNA
The prosperous man announces to himself
“Nothing will ever shake me.”“No one will do me harm”
That way, he lies in wait
And when the moment comes
He does away with gooks
Insurgents raised from birth
To murder us
But no, we have learned to wait, we will,
To drag away the corpses of our enemies
Heads hacked off
Hearts hanging
Memories erased
That’s what you do best
You look away
From our sickness and our misery
You look away from famine
And hurricane
You look away
From schizophrenia
Apparently, we’re on our own
If we choose to say
Death is your almighty will
Then good
That way
We can play religion too
Arise, Lord! Lift up your heart!Do not forget us.
You see the trouble of the afflicted
Except you don’t
Or if you do
You don’t
Sorry about that
I was off my meds
The Lord is King for ever and ever
The nations of his enemies will perish from his land
How’s that?
Psalm Eleven
1 In God do I take refuge:How say ye to my soul,Flee as a bird