We leave behind disaster

We leave behind disaster

Both natural and man made

Aids, Chernobyl, Darfur, the Holocaust

With more to come; I am afraid.

We wished as every parent does

To leave a better world

Yet as we spin life’s nesting threads

Another crisis now unfurls.

Natural disasters that we’ve had

Are out of man’s control

And in the aftermath of challenges

We can barely help surviving souls.

Katrina, wildfires, oil spills, wars,

No clear horizon from the blight,

Unanswered prayers repeatedly

Offer up no end in sight.

Held high there’s still our shining jewel;

Hope lives in heart and mind,

Beseeching holy intervention

While knowing it is blind.

And if love is the answer

The question still remains

Why is this not a better world

Why is our love not unrestrained?

I know I know the answer

Too much hate that beats us down

Each tarnished heart repeating;

Wear not angelic crown

Hate rips away the thought of love

Destroys our hope and our redemption

We need discard hates old restraints

Replace our hate with good intention

To wear an angels glorious crown

And so show love

And so show care

Be there be there be there be there.

C Schlessel © March 2011