TAINTED    TEARS

'In God we trust'  --
no bill without their creed.
'By the grace of God'  --
no king without their claim.
'God is great'  --
no war without their cry.

But buckets they shed
over people of different faiths,
who maltreat and murder each other;
over people of similar faiths,
who start and keep the same strife;
over endless religious conflicts
in the violent vales of this world,
again and again.

Tears for so much ethnic cruelty there:
genuine tears that run empty of insight,
crocodile tears that flow empty of feeling,
virgin-mother tears that fall empty of cause.

Tears full of moral complacency here:
where they too appropriate the money,
where they too church the public,
where they too have stolen the state.

'In justice we must'  --
they never established such a thing.
'Government for all'  --
they never realized what it meant.
'Personhood in civil equality'  --
they never included this right.