Things to Tell Myself

She’s never read a newspaper
She boasts
She’s never had black ink
Stain her fingertips
She’s never had dark stories
Stain her mind
She already knows
How far humanity has slipped
She says

She’s never watched the news
She declares
She’s never had pictures
Of hurricanes and floods
Drag her eyes open
She’s never heard the screams
From exploding bombs
Echo in her ears
She already knows
How far humanity has slipped
She says

She’s never voted in an election
She claims
She has never put her cross
Decisive and firm
In any box
She’s never listened
To party political broadcasts
She is waiting for a better world
Than this
She already knows
How far humanity has slipped
She says

Humanity slipped and
You stood and watched
I tell her

You’ve wasted the authority
God gave you
I tell her

Your prayers
Stirred by the stories
Like an arrow loosed at a target
Directed and purposeful
Could have felled the enemy
I tell her

Your prayers
Fuelled by the images
Sown with tears
Pleading for the lost, the blind and the lame
Lifting their names to heaven
Applying the precious Blood
To the blows and the bruises
Could have brought healing
I tell her

You could have closed the door
On the tyrants
And on the small men
Who sit on big thrones
And tear down the walls that protect
The poor
I tell her

The better world
Is this one
When we take the authority
God has given
And pray
I tell her

Then I tell these things
To myself