Saturday, October 20, 2012

Letters and Other Prayers VI


Requiem for an Apple

 

Behold what holy rage inside me roils,

The words of anger that now boil, ready

To explode in horror, anguish, forewarning:

In my cry hear the silent tears of children dying!

 

They who not even have the strength to say

What hunger dull pangs of pain shoots them through

And through, killing more for their dullness,

Thank God they see not this blasphemy – their last nail.

 

For I dare not think what they would do,

Seeing you toss that fruit into trash,

Seeing you take the food you cannot eat yourself,

To feed then not the hungry, but the garbage cans.

 

Eat, I say, but let others feed as well.

For while you can, eat what to others by greed,

That monster that is never satisfied, is denied.

For God to all provides the abundance that is enough.

 

But you do not know the abundance at your feet,

The fruit of trees that you crush at will –

The earth that so freely gives its gifts,

You spit on, and litter it with its own and man’s work.

 

Therefore I say: pray that the day may stay,

The terrible day when for an apple men

Will men kill, and for a crumb of bread

They will crumble to the ground in sheer pain.

 

For this pride the justice of God may soon

Refuse to endure – then the fires will from

High heaven rain to burn the trees you burn

And poison the earth you poison: you judged yourself.

 

Eat then, with grace and moderation, with

Gratitude that of God, like the food you eat, comes.

Then will your humanity increase, and

You from pig to men will rise, and live.

 

This apple you already wasted, but tomorrow

Will another be, another proof your love can

Still make. Use well the apple that from heaven

Comes, for wherever it goes, it is there that it shall return.

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