This Generation

We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.

Matthew 11:17

In the Marketplace,

a game of children.

One does not dance,

when the flute is played,

mimicking a wedding feast.

The other does not mourn

when the singing is of death.

What did they expect?

Did they come to see a prophet,

or king?

Did they expect glimmering robes?

Whatever is received

it is never enough.

One came by the river,

without food or drink,

and he is called a demon.

The son comes

sharing meals of tradition

and hospitality,

and he is called a friend of sinners.

I played a wedding song for you,

on my flute

and you chose not dance.

I sang the somber hymns

of a funeral march,

and you chose not to cry.

To what are you compared,

this generation

and the next?

You are neither happy

when the grass is green,

nor when it is brown.

Scarlet Robe Creations