Song of the Mockers

-
Bernardino Mei 1655

What sign can you show
that gives you
authority.
How can we believe
if there is no sign?

You are full of zeal,
but many before you have read
the psalms.
They too
could say they were consumed.

You claim this to be a marketplace
of our making,
but holy men have stood
where you stand
and they have not condemned our transactions.

You say
that if we tear down this temple,
a structure that has taken decades
to raise,
you will build it back
brick by brick
in three days.

Will you dance for us as well,
prophet,
king,
fool.
We are the disbelievers.
We are the hypocrites.
We are the ones gathered in a den of thieves.
And we are those who will forever ask for a sign
of your authority.



copyright 2023 -Donald P James Jr

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