Come Rest With Me, O Lord
Come rest with me, O Lord!
Before you go down
that awful road.
You must be weary
of all the prayers
reeking of revenge
and bloody reprisal,
each prayer plowing
another furrow
on your infinitely
wrinkled brow.
Do not be angry
as all these bodies
you so delicately
cultivated through
millions of years
fall wounded and
dying at your feet.
Each one reaching
toward that long sought
embrace with the idea
of perfect union.
Come rest with me
upon this soft pillow
before you venture out
to the battlefield of archaic
hate and fear and loneliness
that tears your flesh
upon the cross of knowing!
You have given us the choice
of destruction or unity
but we continually choose
to destroy as we inch
toward the prophesied end.
The wars and wounded multiply
and the nuclear genie
is out of the bottle again.
The human world
spins chaotically forgetting
your enormous and
ecstatic presence within us.
Come rest here with me!
Let me sooth your wounds
and grave disappointments
before you go down
that dreadful road again.
I want to be your lover, dear one,
Come rest in my arms
beneath my warm covers!
Then in the dawn we will
rise again renewed!
You have warned us
of the wars and plagues
as we tear each other apart
just to claim your name.
You knew the wounds and cuts
would pierce your body
as we become obsessed
by the idea of separation.
Come rest with me!
I will keep you warm
here beside me
in this long bitter night.
I know the time
to choose has come.
The message sketched
like a treasure map.
in our genes.
We have placed an eye
in the heavens to see
the moment of creation.
Yet we destroy ourselves
on the battlefields
murdering for your love.
Come rest with me!
You need to be embraced
and comforted before daybreak
as the time for healing
or for destruction ascends
through our wounded hearts
onto the verdant fields
of transcendent history.
© Allen Cohen All rights reserved.