World Peac Pilgrimage to Mt. Baldy (Trying to Scurry Off in the Opposite Direction)
by Charles S Kraszewski


Look the problem with God is that He
Sticks to the fingers like pine resin
And not even the turpentine of rational thought
Can scour Him out from the pores He seeps into
Turpentine coming from resin itself
Fire cannot be driven out with fire
The conflagration is but a confirmation
You need sand an abrasive dry and neutral nothing
Only thing is nothing doesn't exist
We tried to invent a poetry for that purpose
Good wicked human tongue-lashings alas
Same problem He beat us to the Word
And a Word Incarnate at that
Nor did scourging help at all
Thanks for nothing Pontius Pilate
All you did there was to scatter by shattering
Millions of roadside Ecce Homo chapels
Erected on pillar and post
And the tongue is where He frequently will rest
All we can do is continue stubbornly repeating
A litany of contradictions like "good wicked"
God cannot contradict Himself
Problem is He loves a paradox
As Donne and Augustine and Rumi
Never tire of pointing out
All we can do is live without Him
In Whom we live and breathe and have our being
Hey we didn't ask to be born






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