The latest version of the

faith and face poem…

It’s a pretty radical shift, but headed now somewhere I’m more comfortable with…still a way to go.

It’s always interesting to me how the poem changes as I change.

WHO WE ARE

there is
a greed that knows nothing of god.

there is a farce and there is applause.
there are always the same
damned people
saying the same
damned things.
there are
forever more bullets than prayers, more
fallen robes in the closet no one
ever hangs up, smooths out, cleans off.
there was honor in the rubble,
but the flag was so brilliant
honor was forgotten and left behind.

if ever there was a reason for an angel
to give up,
it sits before us like a star chart of judgment day.
if ever there was a reason for a human face
to melt away and expose its faith, skeletal and frail behind it,

this is it:

an age of blue and slippery causes,
chewed ethics and faded bloodstains,
inconvenient skins and trees.

this is it.

in spite of which, we
don’t. can’t.

we are that order
who will
not.