Monday, the Second Week of Lent

Monday, the Second Week of Lent

If you can’t lick them bind them
wrap the world’s wounds
in the rag-tag remnants of your dreams.

We were walking on the road to Jericho you and I
from Jerusalem to Jericho
all the lonely people
where do they all come fr
and the man speaks of love
all the lonely people speak of love
armed love
Bonnie and Clyde love
heart and soul love
mind and strength love
neighbor love
stripped and beaten love
lying there on the roadside to My Lai to Chicago
to the grocery store.

Living on a one-way street
is like watching half a ping-pong game
people bouncing along the road of life.

The ratio of a man’s brain to his automobile body
is about the same as that of a dinosaur brain
to a dinosaur body
add that to your fuel
and see how your mileage improves.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho
is not one-way
like the two-edged word of God
it cuts in both directions
like a ping-pong ball it bounces back.
Although I have always wondered
about the presence of the Samaritan on that road
being that Jews and Samaritans darned their socks
alone in the night
a small point to be sure
but there he was in hostile territory
what did he care?

And then the question hits us
like a body in the ditch
like an empty gas tank
like a hole in our socks.
What are we going to use for bandages?
Those of us stripped of the rag-tag remnants of our dreams?

Hang on to your hats
may become the wisdom of the ages
at the very least
hang on to the rag-tag remnants of your dreams.