Opening Words from Sun. April 5: "Threnody" by Walter Vesper

By Lance Finney | April 6, 2015

Threnody

When the edge of the world
was two days away,
and pagans were anyone
past the next valley,

it was easy to see that God
was ours.

What is ours is ours
and yours is wrong.

What am I to do
now that you live next door?

If I eat hot dogs
and you keep kosher
can we meet for supper?

If I start at the greatest good
and you with the primacy of life
is there a way to love each other?

If my god has a white beard
and yours six arms
will we meet for coffee or tea?

If I strive for the needle’s eye and
you for dharma, can our children
play after school?

I fear the edges of the world are getting closer.

Perhaps our gods might be interested
in doing lunch.

Let’s let them work out the boundaries of their territory
before our globe shrinks much more.

That is, unless our gods have been
sitting on the front porch,
all this time,

waiting to see if we have learned
to play together in the sandbox.