Offering Up the Children

by SMSmith

Once
Laid upon the altar of the world
The innocent child of the Hinnom wild
Killed amidst the groves.[1]

Now
Laid upon the altar of the world
The neglected child in pursuits reviled
For things laid up in store.
The ciphered child in perversities defiled
By addicts demeaning, ever demanding more.
And the embryo child in a world beguiled
By rights of all but those.

By Moloch's priests amidst pagan feasts
Laid upon the altars of the world.
In proxied price for the willful sin
Of an idolatrous kin
Who feign in sacrifice.

What of these groves and altars of the world?
And the plague-orphaned child abandoned while
We surfeit in ease
Bottom-line disease
Kill in war
Pursue self ever more.

How long, O humankind,
These groves and altars of the world?

[1] Jer. 32:35, 19:5-6, 7:31; Isa. 57:5

© 1987 by SMSmith. Some Rights Reserved. See Creative Commons License at bottom of this page.

Empty Houses

by SMSmith

Curried green
And seen if seen
In the haste
Of a summer’s morn.

Not seen
In winter days
In the overcastted late
Of dream-spent spenders
Caught
In the night
Of artificial light.

From body-tired
To mindless ease
From consuming, routined
Hours to please
Powers and privilege.

Weekend escapes
Vacation leaves
Past miles unseen
From abodes unseen
Double-locked and alarmed.

Embellished walls
Wide, mortgaged halls
All
Vaulted silence.

Emptied

In the endless search
For enough
Of more.

© 1987 by SMSmith. Some Rights Reserved. See Creative Commons License at bottom of this page.