after “The Sharpest Axe” by Greg Lookerse
The weapon used
in the name of peace, forgiveness,
cleansing, the good of all.
Holy war, righteous cause, they sharpen
the blade for battle, belief
blindly clutched in their hands,
with steel armor as bright
as saintly stained glass.
Their bread and wine fills them
with the strength of the divine,
traveling over oceans, spreading scripture
from sea to shining sea.
They tell it with their sharpest axe
and baptize the lands in blood,
turn the rivers red and call it salvation.
Thus saith the Lord, they claim
and set the earth ablaze
as hymns of screams fill the air.
If only they looked at their hands
that hold onto their tool of destruction,
hands that blister and burn on the haft of the holy.
For all they say to the so-called sinners,
for all they preach and all their zeal,
they do not know the God they wield.
Rey Tello
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