faith over fear

I wrote this poem over an injustice committed against my family that has caused outrageous suffering.

Curt voices of prosperity

Shriek and shrill,

Intentions forsaking still,

The sound of the Psalter,

The conch shell of divinity.

Irrationality masked

As your brand of Christianity

Is the new reality.

Consequentialism

Shrinks the heart

But causes the mind to swell

Like tumultuous stirring

Deep within,

No words can tell.

Brigand Christians bellow

From their figureheaded bow,

“Full steam ahead!”

Their brothers and sisters—

A means-to-an-end—

Fitted like seamless sardines

In the ship’s cargo hold.

To religion they’re sold

Forced to row

But choose to suffer well.

Silence in suffering

Endures the deepest hell.

The Albatross

Shot out of the crow’s nest falls.

Across the swabbed decks of impunity,

Pride goes before a fall.

Your pirate promises,

Forgetting their injury,

Waltz off the plank of pedagogy.

The Holy Spirit grieved

At your forked-tongue

The night before

You “called an audible,”

Changing your script

To please the collective,

Instead of the individual.

Faith over fear

Takes the words of Christ, seriously.

To save the one

Out of the ninety-nine,

He speaks plainly,

Not mysteriously.

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