November 21, 2016
A poem for the new era:
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos,
Malachi and John the Baptist
Rage with me at this new Herod,
this builder of golden temples.
Rage against our common well poisoned
by hate distilled from fear.
The billionaires will drink bottled water
but the immigrant mother,
the Muslim brother
the handicapped boy
are gut sick
profaned.
Rage until your nerve-racked heart
turns to more durable stuff.
Rage with me Bonhoeffer
and bring your pen, louder than a bomb.
Rage with me Ghandi and King
and bring your iron love
Rage with me Desmond Tutu
and show me how you stared down the beast.
Rage against the hate.
Purge it with a very loud love.
One that sings and cracks glass ceilings.
A love so strong
it unbends the crooked cross of Hitler.
Resist any new normal
where the bully pulpit
is now the bullies’ throne.
Where a migrant worker sleeping in a bus station
is beaten and pissed on.
Where a Latina on a subway platform is told,
“I can’t wait until I can rape you
and throw you over the wall.”
Where a gay man is beaten bloody for being himself.
Where a ten year-old girl’s privates are groped
by a boy in her class who says,
“If the President can do it, so can I.”
Resist any new normal
where the golden rule is
hate your neighbor as you hate yourself.
In memory of Leonard Cohen.
Paulist Fr. Frank Desiderio is first consultor, or chief advisor, to the president of the Paulist Fathers. He previously served as president of Paulist Productions and as director of the Paulist Center in Boston, MA. He is based at our motherhouse in New York City.