What happened there
Was so terribly wicked.
Under a noble Lion Banner
The vipers feed
The enemy swings sledgehammers
Mocking the innocent that bleed
While the watchmen stand in silent agreement.
And they crushed me.
Some bones are still fragmented.
Some stay out of joint.
Their coldness never relented
There is nowhere to point
To kindness or mercy
Or accountability.
I have tried to do surgery again and again
On my own broken bones.
I’ve tried spiritual disciplines.
I army-crawl through life alone
Dragging my legs along.
Everyone looks safer than them.
I trusted their banner in open singing.
I walked into the wrong door
When the hammers started swinging
Now I can walk no more.
I fled. I bled out
My most necessary bits
On the cold, hard freezer floor.
Now I walk, I skip, I dance
No more.
No one will ever confess;
It can’t be made right.
How can I ever escape
The cruelty portrayed
If it remains the last moment I remember
Having legs?
While in their own eyes
They do no wrong, and despise
Whomever can’t commend.
They run after anyone who will pretend with them
That they are who they pretend to be.
How do humans
Made in the image of God
Get so twisted
Capable of such self-justified,
Heartless, soulless wickedness?
Part and parcel and permanently
Passing the buck.
How can I ever hope to be like Jesus,
If I can’t keep them forgiven?
I’m stuck
By souls that live under no steeple.
The angel comes and troubles the waters,
But I’m troubled by the people.
It keeps twisting me.
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