Reprisal

After leaving sweating bricks and rotten pus behind
We agreed our Moses was not blind
But then standing at desolate sea, we come to find
The army was galloping in our mind

If only we could be still, and see clear before us
The impossible sea to defeat
What strength was made from faith's plain chorus
What pushed the water from our feet.

After circling the desert of worship, the cold wilderness
We came to a mountain high as fear
Stopped, ate, played, and fumbled our righteousness
When no Moses from its peak did stare

If only we had heard, the voice, the eternal word
The fountain of the bitter emptiness
Of spring and vision gone. The fire weld us as a herd
and Jordon wash again our filthiness.

And then we disembark plane or ship to find at last
This aint the promiseland we need
The King saw the mountain dreaming free at last
While children bombed to splinters bleed.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2009

Poem

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