God was in Heaven on one of His Masterpiece Days.

God was in heaven on one of his masterpiece days

when he said, “My son, I must send you away.”

Jesus said, “But Father, I’d much prefer to stay,”

God said the price was too high to pay.

“The world,” he said, “is running close to ruin,

it’s a dirty job son, but it does need doing.

The Devil now illuminates the temples we built,

infused the wrong half of mankind with angst and guilt.

Instead of the strong and wealthy being humble and kind

they’ve become ever more acquisitive and pay no mind

to those who look different or have less.

You have to go down there and clean up the mess.”

Jesus thought of the last time he went to earth.

“What had the mercy and sacrifice been worth?”

He’d preached the value of forgiveness and grace

which mankind flushed away leaving nary a trace.

Hours of agony nailed to wood for man to create want,

rarely do what he should

and elevate himself, his blood, to higher planes.

Easier it seems to inhabit the basement;

use blame to de-humanise those beneath,

spit lies conspired under the eye of the thief;

justify having, with

‘it’s easier to get more’,

even when the price is carnage and war.

Innocent blood, splatters in sand.

Politicians sneakily wash their hands

then confess, in their memoirs, regret for the graveyards

replete with sons and daughters, who should be carousing,

procreating their offspring.

Children, who can grow into their own universes

with high-ambition and worthy purposes.

Unlike the 21 in Africa

who die every minute from such preventable ills

as Measles and Diarrhoea

disposable victims of Corona and Ebola.

And governments spend trillions travelling to stars

looking for water on comets or Mars.

Will that water slake the thirst

of the pot-bellied, bewildered babes

whose insides hurt

every second of their pitiful lives?

Man craves redemption through sun-glassed eyes.

So who can know if his nose points at poverty

but eyes shift sideways,

searching for property and more property?

So Jesus came again,

saw those who have: hailed as messiahs,

those who have not; decried as pariahs.

He smelt whiffs of unfairness concocted in secrecy,

tasted most venomous and sickening hypocrisy,

heard egregious, blood curdling blasphemies

and trumpets of racist, perfidious legacies,

fear driven, hate filled imperial histories.

He met warmongers and despots

slavers and crackpots

And then declared:

“You have no need to care

about what is God’s real name;

nor even if he’s really there.

Or who is the head of what state, where.

Why bear kings in the world

if they reign over systems that create no good

for the wretched, the exploited, the faithful, the diseased?”

He added, “Be wary of whom you accuse.

for those who sit in different pews

are actually just like you,

playing their part in the conflict,

injustice and sleaze.”

He saw that humanity, was good but weak

living in systems that favour bleak,

‘same old’, routine reactions

rather than inspiring unique,

bold and pro-active imaginations.

When decisions are made from the comfort zone,

they will rarely threaten the vast unknown.

Where is the sense

in spending billions on defence,

when fractions of that heinous business

could cure so much needless illness?

Jesus wept.

Man, I feel like crying.

Not only for brothers and sisters in Africa.

Also the artless and needy the whole world over.

All victims of man’s inhumanity to himself.

Brain-laundered automatons stripped of personality.

Every item shed, a part of the humanity

that integrates and cultivates completeness.

But societal systems require only part of us

which leads down an alley, slimy and tortuous

into pandemonium, chaos and dis-integration,

where soulless roles are more useful to the nation

than the thoughtful, spiritual and beautiful

wholeness of humanity.

A humanity that is forever pregnant

with music and poetry; rhythm and rhyme.

Verities that have passed all tests of time.

Known to sustain, inspire and soothe,

bring us together in harmony and truth.

It isn’t that people are born with greed,

we are, of course, born with need.

No wonder then, when all feels lost

a desperate underclass will turn its thoughts

to grabbing what they believe they deserve;

all it takes is strategy and nerve

to imitate the establishment who grab, swindle and lie,

for the purpose of getting more; so that when they die

there will be a trove of money and stuff

to fill their coffins up

and take with them to the great beyond.

Where God will say, on a masterpiece day,

“Why do so many come this way

burdened with shame and regret?”

Jesus, having seen with his own eyes, will reply,

“They abandoned humility, picked up “I”

and spawned a cult of individuality.

Value is now obtained from celebrity.

Few seem to care for friendship and community

while kneeling at the altar of digital technology.”

And God will roar with biblical might,

“Such an easy task for man, but he still can’t get it right;

care for your children, respect your mother,

understand your enemy and

for Christ’s sake, love one another.

Simple.”