" Reproach "
He was chided
for how long it took him
to relay the final word
and for the number of times
he changed his mind.
He was indicted
for selling wormy fruit,
indulgences,
and warm fish served on stale bread.
He was cursed
for excess political correctness,
cultural diversity,
and delivering the wrong present
on her birthday.
He was tried
as the consummate bureaucrat,
his infinity of laws more complicated
than the Pentagon’s specs
for chocolate chip cookies.
He was reproached
for a holocaust, ethnic cleansing,
wars, foot binding, ritual circumcision,
gulags, hoards, Jim Crow, pogroms,
Roman salt works, Sonora silver mines,
apartheid, killing fields, death marches,
suicide bombings, ghettos, lynch mobs,
sweat shops, blue riots, jihads,
arranged marriages, border fences, elections,
the next war and the war after that.
He was crucified.
He was placed
upon a cross, those who washed his feet
and bathed his corpse
relegated to an existence as chattel.
He was declared dead
only to rise as the sins
of his followers multiplied
poisoned by good intentions.
He knows blame
is placed in the wrong corner
and only asks we forgive him
for free will.
© 2004 Gary Blankenship
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