Everyone tried to take the staple out
after the list of lies became weeds –
the first a mistake,
the second an error in judgment,
but the third, fourth, hundredth, twenty
thousandth – a brick thrown through a window,
glass shattering into a void of intelligence.
Twenty thousand lies in four years –
five thousand a year – almost thirteen a day –
so we reform Christianity through a leadership
condoning the breaking of the laws of the Bible:
we should commit adultery – yes, he says, it’s OK;
it’s OK to steal funds meant for the greater good;
yes, my golf courses and hotels deserve the money;
and, of course, you must give false evidence.
So it goes. Campaign literature that brags:
“the cancel culture (is) trying to erase our history
and our culture.” Now it’s OK to use the Confederacy
in order to keep the culture – whose culture? –
safe from everyone who is not white.
Don’t know. This is a leader in league with something else.
Perhaps we will never find out, but each lie creates
a weed and each weed an invasive forest full of injustice,
ignorance, and for some reason, an adoration
of Christians who, I guess, like his Christianity better.
| Copyright © 2020 by Michael H. Brownstein Michael H. Brownstein’s volumes of poetry, A Slipknot Into Somewhere Else and How Do We Create Love?, were published by Cholla Needles Press in 2018 & 2019, respectively. |
I wonder how many “Christians” would be open to reading this poem and considering its implications.
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