Poem for March 4th, Mark 8:31-38 2nd Sunday in Lent

These words are so hard to hear
So hard
Why?
--why must our master walk in this direction
Why?
--when we have left our families and work
do we have to hear these words of doom and death
Why?

This talk makes no sense
We could have it all
We could live
We could live in a world so kind
With none of the pain
We left behind
A world far better than any have seen
A world that for many is just a dream
We could have it
We could have it all
The power that comes with the ones
Who lead
And show the way
That people want to follow
They really want to follow you
Away from Romans
--and poverty
----and hardship
we could be a great power
A Nation
--that is looked up to and feared
----by nations
Master!
--Rabbi!
-------listen to what your senses
-------and to what the people are saying
-------listen

and Jesus turns
and faces all
--who have come this far
--and hung on every word
--and lived on every morsel of life
----dropped from his lips
--who have lived as they have never lived before
--with a hope they had never known
Listen, this is my Son
His eyes said
As he looked through the crowd
In a stare of ice
And the thoughts turned to those unexplained moments
That raised the questions
And the hearts raced with fear
--as they knew
----once more
they were in for something more
than they had ever known
--or dreamed
----or bargained for
in the collective memory of all creation

GET--------THEE--------BEHIND--------ME
------(take)---------(up)---------------(thy)--------(cross)
with your temptress minds of humanity
and live
LIVE
--beyond the limits of your perceived reality
and a world that
-----changes
--hatred for hatred for hatred
until all see only the gain in their world.
See and feel and hear that glimmer
That goes beyond the mere pretense of happiness
And see the children’s faces
--for what they could be
LIVE
--(and follow me)