Every tear wiped away,
But not in Isreal
Not in Gaza.
Where’s your Messiah now?
Ukraine’s sunflowers weep,
Unable to follow the sun
Attrited by Third Rome’s janissaries,
Iconostases rubbled
By eyes in the sky weeping ruin.
Iron beasts, slain
Litter desert, forest,
By isotopic arrows despoiled,
Cancerous, ravenous, patient.
Empty hearths.
Children’s questions.
Abba? Father?
Wives’ breasts cleaved,
Hungers unsatisfied.
Dirt napped in 24,
Pine boxed, incensed
A wailing last touch or kiss,
Pulling on shrouds,
Then on with their lives.
Must fields burn
Before new growth?
Always one step forward.
Two steps back with you God.
Between agony and ecstasy
I choose a child’s safe smile.
Pasture those four horses.
The New Jerusalem can wait.
