Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

To Heal a Broken World

You flaunt before me
your anger in the temple, Jesus,
a passion for righteousness.
Like you I hate my failure
to reconfigure a world
which slashes and crushes,
which murders and starves.
At the same time
I rise from your
rich table of mercy
and stand in all the noble grandeur
granted to each of us.
I see the pain all around me
and despite the glory given everyone
I find no way to fix the problem.
Miserably I watch the ones
who walk too fast, too many,
toward the mass grave
which already contains everyone
who went before me.
Even those already walking
in the caravan to corruption
carry barely enough hope
to look toward you, toward me,
and wonder whether a smile
might appear to say simply
hello.

[The Covenant Journal, Number 26, September 2007 All poetry in this issue is by Robert Cogswell.]