the reckoning

I believe, in many ways, we’re starting over.

" Mercy be unto the woman whose breast runs full with milk
and the child to its mother cries for comfort and finds none.
Into their homes they huddle in corners and hold one to another
as the moan of the earth tears beneath the walls of their towers and their huts.

Fallen and desolate are the cities of cruel oppression,
their foundations torn asunder, their bricks strewn about the land.
Gather not your comforts for the hour is too late upon you,
for the waves gather high above you and cover you fast in darkness.

Mercy be unto the man who seeks his beloved
among churning fires and smoke.
His eyes stung with blindness, his pleas unanswered,
Neither young nor old are found in this place, for it is no more.

Mercy be unto he that carries his pride in silk and satin garments,
lined in gold with diamond crowns upon their heads.
Wandering is he now amid dark and empty halls.
He calls unto his servants, but they answer not.
Behold, he falls limp within the shadow and dust of his passions
for his riches are without worth and his garments lie cold and broken.

Mercy be then unto those leaders of nations great and small
who have plundered the earth of its gifts.
For yourself, you have fattened your purse
and ignored the plight of your people
whose arms being outstretched but for the crumbs upon your plate,
and thou hast turned thy blind eye upon them,
seeking only the company of the favored.
Having robbed then from the weak and downtrodden,
your prize now snatched from your hands,
you are brought down among the lowly and weak.
And barren are your coffers so that they hold no coins
and your mirrors have no light within them.

Great is the fury of the Earth, for she is without mercy and solace.
In her discomfort she turns in bitter pain,
for her limbs are wrought with the plagues of man’s cruelness.
And she can bear no more these burdens
heaped upon her breast, and she drowns her pain into the oceans,
and the seas take leave of their beds,
and from the howling winds of her lungs she lays waste to the land
as the boils upon her skin erupt with their poisons.
Her skies are choked with venom,
and all creatures hide from her face.
As a robe of darkness covers her body,
she withdraws from the sun
and languishes in rumbling discomfort and sorrow.
And the peoples of her bosom shall lament in their misfortunes,
for like a thief in the night they are robbed of their treasures
and without sustenance.

But in the darkest of nights there lies a Fire still.
For man holds his beloved close;
friend carries friend to warm hearths, and
a stranger brings a soothing hand.
There are Lamps set upon hills
and the Oil of their Flame is Love and their Light is Hope.
Man shall not stay in darkness, nor shall his heart be stayed.
For the glorious spirit of his true nature,
now loosed from the chains of his own making,
he climbs from the ashes of empty illusions
to manifest now his dearest Visions of Peace.
Such that Finally, and in Great Measure,
Goodwill shall be shared among All men.
And Upon that very Cornerstone
shall he Rebuild and Sustain himself again.
No longer shall the Bread of Life be outside his reach.
That which belongs to not one, but All man,
that lies not in coffers of coins and carats
but There in his Heart, and in that of his Friend and Neighbor,
Brother and Sister, there shall be found his daily bread
of love, inspiration, and True freedom.
And from the Wealth of his new found Oneness
shall he Harvest then, in equal measure,
the Greatness of his Nature and Spiritual destiny."


james francis