God's Jar

It dawned on me that I haven't posted one of my melodramatic poems in months, friends. Tsk. Tsk. We can't have me not being melodramatic! I have a rep to protect.

Anyway, this is one of my favorites and it seemed appropriate in light of the heartbreaking BP catastrophe in the Gulf. Oh, Greed: she is a terrible, terrible thing. As I watch our waters, wetlands and wildlife succumb to oil and poison, all I can think about is the old saying, "Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money."


God's Jar


He holds in glass a foreign land
Where darkness dwells inside of man
And fruit withers on gnarled trees
In gardens sowed with mankind's seed.

He peers inside and tears soon well
As rain descends and oceans swell
Fatherless men seek clemency
Waters purge and shores recede.

He shaped this place of life and death
And was The One who gave it breath
He fashioned man; is He to blame?
Is His triumph, also His shame?

The grace of God held in His hands
His Son asks, "Father, what is that?"
God lays it in his tiny grasp
"Be careful, Son," is all He asks.

A child of faith smiles down from high
Across the stars, his laughter nigh
He marvels at this world afar
Tiny grains trapped in Heaven's jar.

He shakes the jar and gazes in
As water wipes the world of sin
Then light imbues the once dark space
And new life rises in its place.

He holds in glass a foreign land
Where waves caress crushed golden sand
And sea oats whisper in the wind
On shores barren of man and sin.


© 2008 by Jennifer Jenkins Reese
All rights reserved