From thoughts in the middle of the night... deliver us oh Lord

middle of the night

thinking of too many things

of the hurts

and ills of this world

at the violence

and death

so far away

of the violence

so close 

so close

of people who cannot talk

of those who hate

and fear

and judge

of a culture of violence

that shatters bodies and lives

of a culture of enmity

which takes the worn

tired

fissured faces of 

those who are poor

and different

and erases them

making them a cipher

a mere shadow

and then devalues them

making them

nothing

I think of politicians who lie

and exagerrate

and lead people who 

fearfully follow them

in to places

that can only be described as the shadow of death

I think of my own

sometimes

often times

fragmented life

and all I can do

is look deep within

to that seed of the sacred

to that place where 

the sacred and I meet

communion

and cry

help!