BAD FRIDAY
For some years I’ve been uneasy
about Good Friday
with its sad theatrics of the torture and killing
of one good man.
We say it’s good because on this day
god died for our sins
but many ask what that might mean
that god could die
even as a man.
Unless, of course, god dies in every child and woman and man
whom they kill for sport or envy or greed.
***
It’s not that Jesus died - everyone’s gotta die
It’s the way they condemned him with a pack of lies
mocked him and shamed him
tortured and killed him
and it’s the way they are still torturing and killing
children and women and men
every day every where.
Who are ‘they’?
Today we hold in holy memory
all those shamed tortured and killed
under no pretext of ‘just’ punishment
but because they were there in the way.
Who on earth are ‘they’?
I hold today as holy
not because on this day they killed god
(frankly I don’t know what that would mean)
but because Jesus is that innocent one
who stands for all the innocent children and women and men
they shame and torture and kill
every day every where.
Today I remember the founders of my country
convicts sent out in chains
flogged to death, many many of them
and I remember the people who lived here
when the invaders came
the ones they shot
the many they poisoned
the multitude they dispossessed and exiled
so they could run sheep in this wide land.
My heart hurts with crowded memories
of slaughter
in Flanders fields
in Dresden and Liverpool, Stalingrad and Hiroshima
in Laos... Cambodia... Uganda...*
Yes, and 9/11 too.
Who killed these millions?
Who - and for what?
Who the fuck are ‘they’?
There is no end.
But
is there hope of an end?
If faith in god’s intervention
and his own son rising from the dead
If that was not enough to start a different trend
then why would you hope for an end?
This ‘good’ Friday is every day
and never.
Sunday will bring a resurrection for one
and hope for the rest
Proof has to be seen
seen in me
seen in you and me
seen by those who would hope
seen when there is no light to see by
seen by those who live in darkness blind.
Can they see that hope in me?
Can I have hope for them to see?
I hope I can.
I can, I hope.
* These names just came to mind randomly. I think you could fill a large volume just with the names of places where people have killed people en masse.
about Good Friday
with its sad theatrics of the torture and killing
of one good man.
We say it’s good because on this day
god died for our sins
but many ask what that might mean
that god could die
even as a man.
Unless, of course, god dies in every child and woman and man
whom they kill for sport or envy or greed.
***
It’s not that Jesus died - everyone’s gotta die
It’s the way they condemned him with a pack of lies
mocked him and shamed him
tortured and killed him
and it’s the way they are still torturing and killing
children and women and men
every day every where.
Who are ‘they’?
Today we hold in holy memory
all those shamed tortured and killed
under no pretext of ‘just’ punishment
but because they were there in the way.
Who on earth are ‘they’?
I hold today as holy
not because on this day they killed god
(frankly I don’t know what that would mean)
but because Jesus is that innocent one
who stands for all the innocent children and women and men
they shame and torture and kill
every day every where.
Today I remember the founders of my country
convicts sent out in chains
flogged to death, many many of them
and I remember the people who lived here
when the invaders came
the ones they shot
the many they poisoned
the multitude they dispossessed and exiled
so they could run sheep in this wide land.
My heart hurts with crowded memories
of slaughter
in Flanders fields
in Dresden and Liverpool, Stalingrad and Hiroshima
in Laos... Cambodia... Uganda...*
Yes, and 9/11 too.
Who killed these millions?
Who - and for what?
Who the fuck are ‘they’?
There is no end.
But
is there hope of an end?
If faith in god’s intervention
and his own son rising from the dead
If that was not enough to start a different trend
then why would you hope for an end?
This ‘good’ Friday is every day
and never.
Sunday will bring a resurrection for one
and hope for the rest
Proof has to be seen
seen in me
seen in you and me
seen by those who would hope
seen when there is no light to see by
seen by those who live in darkness blind.
Can they see that hope in me?
Can I have hope for them to see?
I hope I can.
I can, I hope.
* These names just came to mind randomly. I think you could fill a large volume just with the names of places where people have killed people en masse.