We Have The Choice

There is a call to prayer
Do I see a Lion, or have I
Been reading Yeats too long?

I have been learning my prayers
I will shortly tell you what
I will do, and what I will not do

I see now Iran, and the motions of
Protest; the ordinary ideal
Is spoken of, and nowhere observed

Unlearned people have taken heaven
By force, only by love can it be
Taken back

This is what we knew before our fall
But which of the many, daily
I ask?

There are the killers of the protesters
Here is my church and my state;
Yes, the many daily

But fear not, God does work in history
Who else? You should regard
With silent, perhaps guilty, smirk

Here is love come again, and the
Precarious position of
The human person

Regarding this I see the conjunction
Between violence to person
And emotion

Hanging now as I do between heaven
And daily fall; we are souls in a State
The metaphysical

The U.N. is in New York, where
The buildings loom large
As State over child

Those deserts of Israel and the young
Woman, testament and peace
I feel now the pain

The buildings loom large over her
Now, but the terror is as old
As the wilderness

If I told you I had met God and
He had no answers for this
Would you understand?

Liam Hutchinson is a poet from Bath in the United Kingdom. Outside of writing his interest lies in human rights. Read other articles by Liam.