Chapter III

I said:

Let love be on earth, and it was not

I said:

Let river dissolve into ocean

Ocean into drought

Drought into fertility

Sprouting bread to sustain hungry hearts

Grass for the earth's cattle

Shade for exiles in sorrow's desert

I saw the son of Adam

Raising his fences around God's personal farm

Shopping for border guards

Selling bread and water to his brethren

Milking lean cows

I said:

Let love be on earth, and it was not

Love was now possessed

By those who could afford the price

And God saw this was not good

I said:

Let justice be on earth

An eye for an eye

A tooth for a tooth

I said:

Does the wolf devour the wolf?

The goat devour the goat?

Don't brandish the sword against the necks of these two:

The child or the old man

And I came to see the son of Adam

Slaughtering the son of Adam

Setting cities ablaze

Planting his dagger in the bellies of pregnant women

Giving his children's fmgers as fodder to horses

Decorating victory banquet with rosettes of severed lips

Justice become death

The gun its measure

Its children crucified in public squares and city street corners

I said:

Let justice be on earth

But it was not

Justice was now possessed

By figures seated on thrones of skulls

With shrouds for mantles

And God saw this was not good

I said:

Let reason be on earth

With its measured voice

I said:

Do birds build nests in a snake's mouth?

Do worms live in fiery flames?

Does the owl paint its eye-lashes black with Kohl?

Is salt strewn when wheat is intended

In the run of time's wheel?

I saw the son of Adam go mad:

Uprooting tall trees

Spitting in wells

Spilling oil on the face river's face

Living in a house while storing a deadly bomb

Under the sill

Giving shelter to scorpions in the warmth of his ribs

Bequeathing to his descendants

His faith

His name

His shirt of strife

Reason become an exiled beggar

Stoned by brats

Arrested by border guards

His patriotic identity invalidated by governments

His name listed among those who hate their homeland

I said:

Let reason be on earth

But it was not

Reason fell apart in a spiral of exile and prison

Until it went mad

And God saw this was not good