Thursday, January 26, 2012

Salutation #94

One life lost to War is (always) one life too many.


(Human Promise)

O my nations, listen -

Human lives
once willfully cut short and stolen
in the midst of our communities
do not just end, they linger -

They linger because
by each life lost to War,
we are truly diminished.

One can not expect
to eat the fruits of a forest,
benefit from the shade of its wood
as well as rest within the protection of its multitude
if there are no trees left.

- selah -

If the nations are hungry,
if we are vulnerable,
if we are weak,
it is because
War in the heart.

When we forget to remember
the unsung promises of those
who are now lost to us through War
and reckless, wasteful violence -
when we forget the hopes they have left
to our every present care,
we stand to learn nothing of their pain and loss
and are therefore, doomed to relive it.

Because it is not the sins of the past that curse,
it is the inability of every present generation
- to overcome its evils -
that prevent our Day from flourishing.

Human promise
once forcefully taken
- by the hand of Man -
becomes an inescapable part
of his unbearable burden -
to be borne by all of his generations
spread across all our nations.

Without Justice,
it hinders his eternal destiny.

Without the Mercy of God,
it prevents it.

Without the Peace
of the nations of Mankind,
by this burden,
Man is sunk in despair.

Without the Love
of a mighty Redeemer,
by this burden too,
Man is to be lost to us forever.
---<--@

Farewell to Promise