Christ died on the Cross
For us, but it hardly shows—
The Savior Botched our salvation—²
We’re so busy worrying about the next world—
We’ve never learned to Live in this one—³
We look on the rest of mankind
As a Doomed Carcass—which
Is to nourish us for heaven.⁴
Talk of heaven—ye Disgrace the Earth!⁵
Hell is the invention of Money-Makers—its purpose is
To divert the attention of the Poor from their present
Affliction: Hell bestows a sanctity on amassed wealth.⁶
We extol the glories of heaven while
Ignoring Social Conditions that
Cause humans an earthly hell.⁷
The God we been praying to is a
Man, and act just like all the other mens
We know: Trifling, Forgitful, Lowdown.⁸
We don’t trust the god you’ve given us:
Though his songs are beautiful,
His miracles are Inconsistent.⁹
At God’s Trial we’ll ask:
Why do you allow all this?
And the answer will be an Echo:
Why do you Allow all this?¹⁰
¹ Susan Griffin, Prayer For Continuation
² Victor Serge tr. James Brook, The Asphyxiated Man
³ Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
⁴ George Eliot, Middlemarch
⁵ Henry David Thoreau, Walden
⁶ John Berger, From A to X
⁷ Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can’t Wait
⁸ Alice Walker, The Color Purple
⁹ Danez Smith, Dear White America
¹⁰ Ilya Kaminsky, A City Like a Guillotine Shivers on Its Way to the Neck