Righteous Believers Stop their Ears
When Stephen, dragged for stoning, knelt at last,
The Middle Eastern mob predicted our
Times. Vicious truths lived, brutal, in the past
And live outrageously. Their hour
Is near, unending in that hateful realm.
This hatred smoulders always and leaps up.
The evil of religion at the helm
Of hate steers vileness as believers cup
Their hands around the handle of the sword
To chop a head off. Stephen had looked high
And seen the universe’s sovereign Lord
Not kneeling, standing, resurrected, by
The throne of God. The holy lips called out
Forgiveness. Evil ones can’t hear that shout.