The Pretenders

by Gary H. Adams / March 3rd, 2024

Some claim they know the mind and will of God
A wee bit presumptuous, I’d say
They wave the Book of Man upside down
With a snarling look of a hissing snake
With only hate in its fangs to snap and bite
All that is good, screaming for retribution
For some undefined wrong not committed against them
All in the name of the Prince of Peace
They preach insanity in the Halls of Power
Wanting to restore a country to a time that never was
But maybe someday will be
A land of tolerance for the downtrodden
The meek, the marginalized, the repressed
As disciples why are they not proselytizing
In areas where they aren’t welcomed like the early
Followers deep within the bowels of Rome
And the deadly Coliseum
You won’t find them in Iran, China, North Korea
But rather in their glittering megachurches
Raking in the dough
With nothing to show for it
Except self-gratification in a hanky
And a hand in the till

Gary H Adams is a retired federal civil servant living in Illinois. He graduated from the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy and has sailed on merchant ships all over the world and worked on tugboats in New York harbor and the surrounding waterways. He has a Master of Library Science from the University of Oklahoma in1975 and has worked in academic and federal libraries until returning to sea in 1981. Upon returning to shore, he worked in transportation and logistics. He has had poems published in Alkahest: American College Poetry, Wesleyan University Press, 1969 and Ukraine: Light in the Darkness, compiled by Rodney Drought and Margaret Gudkov, 2022. Read other articles by Gary H..

This article was posted on Sunday, March 3rd, 2024 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.