Lord, Have Mercy!

For Nepal, her mothers and fathers,

her siblings and babies, the bodies

suffocated by debris,

all the families who wait and wail,

hoping against hope,

digging against the clock,

praying against rock;

Lord, have mercy!

For Baltimore, raging against the pain,

sinking into mutual inhumanity,

burning hope like chaff,

scrambling into confusion,

psalming into the chaos

for all they're worth,

disbelieving it will be enough;

Lord, have mercy!

For all whose tortured circumstances

merit no news coverage,

whose pain goes unnoticed

or unreported or even excused,

whose rudderless circumstances

create daily panic attacks

and breathless anxiety;

Lord, have mercy!

For us, when we get so caught up

in our own little dramas

that we fail to see the fear

in others' eyes, cannot hear

the pain in others' voices, and gloss

over our neighbor's trauma;

Lord, have mercy!

© 2015 Todd Jenkins