Thou art indeed just, Lord … but why did that boy I met with the shaven head –
he’d kicked over the litter bin and was jumping about as if it were a bed
of dry leaves in the park – wear such a manic grin?
He distributed the stuff as fast as I tried to put it back in,
and so we struggled, (literally, in my case, given the state of my back,) youth
versus age, until he tired of my empty threats and mild reproof
and went off with his mates to upset the bin in the next street, no doubt,
or ring the bells and bang on the windows of folk too scared to come out …
What’s the point, Lord, of the work I do? Why shouldn’t I despair
as this boy with dismal CAT score and prison-ready hair
goes capering in his Doc Martens through the civic beds
while people whose hair goes thin or grey upon their heads
question the whereabouts of his parents? I question that, too,
but more pressing, Lord, I question the whereabouts of you.
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3 comments:
A very thought provoking piece....
I never knew you were so quick to make value judgements based on circumstantial evidence... so sure of the validity of your definition of right and wrong... nor so likely to assume that God will find in your favour come the day of judgement.
If it turned out that he is simply the inevitable product of the decisions that governments have made, are you so sure those decisions are correct? Is the fault with him or the people who made the decisions?
Thought for the day - Who are the government to seek to deny that which God has given freely?
An interesting comment Darius. Maybe this blog isn't the best place for poetry after all. Being poetry you can't assume the 'I' of the poem is the author, nor can you rule out the possibility of self mockery: the grumpy old man with flat cap over thinning hair misses the delight in living that is expressed in the choice of 'capering', and no one, after all, these days, talks about CAT scores with a straight face. Having said that, I've sat in the front rooms of folk whose lives are made a misery by kids rapping on their windows, and have picked up the litter myself, so the lefty impulse to blame government rather than the kid's upbringing is a bit hollow imho!
If we as parents aren't allowed to discipline out kids any more, why should we bother. This is our goverments doing so let them deal with it.
The words that spring to mind would be " You made your bed, now sleep in it"
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