They lay their snares, their questions masked
in seeming innocence, an intellectual curiosity
overflowing with a venomous taste for death.
By whose authority do you teach?
Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?
Which brother is the husband in heaven?
It was a dance of course, the masque of death,
blood-red with the impulse, the compulsion
to murder and destroy, for the sake of the nation.
As they dance the dance, as they sway and
pirouette, as they devour with their smiles,
the widow in poverty gives her two pennies.
This poem is submitted for Open Link Night at dVersePoets. The links for all poems submitted will be live at 2 p.m. Central time today at the dVerse Poets site.
This poem is also a meditation for Easter week. It was the Tuesday of that week that Jesus spoke in the temple for the last time as a free man.
The traps they continually laid for Him are amazing. And he found a way out of every one of them with clever wisdom and gracious truth.
ReplyDelete"devour with their smiles" -- this brings their false face facades into the light; usually I just focus on their false hearts.
ReplyDeleteThese last two poems & images have been stellar.
Blessings.
Well-written, Glynn; I especially like how you conclude the poem.
ReplyDeleteThat last verse ... just silenced by it.
ReplyDeletedef that last line is the cincher...and the contrast...bring home easter man
ReplyDeletehey glynn;
ReplyDeletethe final stanza has power and
a strong reasonance; a memorable
ending for sure :)
Thank you for this, Glynn!
ReplyDeletethank you for this glorious contribution to my own Lenten devotional reading. Lovely and fierce.
ReplyDeleteThis is a powerful indictment of those who might lure us away from true humanity and into deception. You have captured the brutality of those who would abuse the power of love for evil in all of its reality. Excellent poem.
ReplyDelete