A Perilous Path

A perilous pathway

Look into the blue waters of the Med where sharks

and poisonous fishes swim, where black sea urchins

lurk and jellyfish sting the unwary travellers on their

perilous path south from Maghreb to Mezzogiorno.

There you will find a monstrous human graveyard,

for the sea gives not up its dead to the living, 

and already countless thousand souls are lost 

to the T ocean,  prey of avarice which fed

on the fears of terror stricken refugees who had

nowhere else to hide and no place else to go.

‘Rescue them?’ our leaders cried, ‘Even more 

will come, and of those who come, even more 

will die; we must not facilitate yet more deaths.’

But can we ever trust the sweet voiced serpent,

whose sharp fangs administer a deadly venom?

These are our brothers and our sisters who rest

deep beneath the smiling waves, supine on biers 

of rock and sand, where many more will gather

destroyed by the smug complacent righteousness 

of those now committed to abandon them.

There can be no resolution, no peace, until we

ourselves identify with fugitives and outcasts,

with children who are hungry, and mothers 

persecuted for their faith.  For are we not all

children beloved of the loving creator God?

Jesus said make the stranger welcome in your

home, and show love, not hate, to your enemies.

Thus our hope is founded upon the love of God 

made manifest in the life of Jesus, and in the love

we have for one another.    Amen,  so may it be.

            

                                                                         Naomi