Friday, the Third Week of Lent

Friday, the Third Week of Lent

We have all played the scene a thousand times
weary afternoon ice rattling in our glasses
teasing bull sessions into night
we touch all the vital issues
watergation
winflation
holynation
spacestation.
The room grows stuffy
so the window is opened for a breath of fresh opinion
all of us saying what we have to say
sitting there in our little demilitarized zones.

“You’d think”
the final doomsday warning argument
drops like a bomb
“you’d think now that we can
send men to the moon
transplant hearts
watch instant replay
call elections after 2% of the vote is counted
you’d think we could put an end to war
you’d think we would have enough intelligence.”
Jesus sat in his bomb shelter
and survived the direct hit
waited for the fallout to dissipate
and emerged to wander the desert of intelligence.

Avoiding war is a matter of intelligence
building peace rises from the heart.
“Deep within them I will build my bomb shelter
then I will be their God
and they shall be my people.”

For better or for worse
it is the heart that shelters God
against the passion-death of holy war days
and thank-God-it’s-good-Fridays
against the climax of our melodrama lives
battlre weary warriors all of us
swords buried in the heart of mother earth
knives in our backs
smiling as we sign upon the dotted line:
“There, finished!
The war to end all wars!”