The shepherd pays dear
Attention to his sheep
As the sheep due
Not follow suits
But accompany prophets
In ways safe from a peril
That compound interest in the whirled
As you have herd
It said
You shall not murder
But now this is tolled
Do not bill bloodsheds
To finance your palatial manner
Or liquidate nations
In the name of kicking assets
Do not except life
And its costly knock offs
Anyone who pro claims
Your life is feudal
Or you fuel
Will end up burning oneself
And anyone bastardizing my word
Is an executer of my state
Do not purchase good will
Wile others out lay
Make it rite personally
Without gaudy talk
Before just us
Decent upon you
Rather forced to pain
Fore every debt sentence
Sow all can make cents
You have herd
It said
You shall not commit adultery
But now this is tolled
Any man dishonoring the source
Of human life on earth
Wood be better off
Had he never been borne
Any man divorcing himself
From what is a parent
Is not fit for a womb of his owin’
You have herd
It said
Long a go
Do not brake your promise
But now this is tolled
Do not sow your wiled oaths
At awe
Your promise on heaven unearth
From here on ahead
This simply know
And yes
Any more sow
Is from the evil won
You have herd
It said
An eye for an eye
And a tooth for a tooth
But now this is tolled
As eye tooth sow telling
Bring to light every bone picked
Sow not striking in efface
As a retainer of humanity
And if won from beyond
What is fare comes
Barren suits
Down on you
Make just us naked
XXX-posing
Shame on them
Farcing won too walk a mile
Sow trying
To catch up with your smiles
Only wanting them
To borrow
Awe that you have
And if knot
Make no’ing to all
You have herd
It said
Love your neighbor
And hate your enemy
But now this is tolled
Love awe
Before you
De-spite those who prey
Wile publicly prosecuting
You as their enema
Knowing full well
Sons rise
And reigns fall
As surly as won nose
Effacing such loathsome fishiness
Too tax a verse
Getting more than you put in
As children of ungaudiness
Seeking abettor
Sow much better
Than that which they are used
To have
Being
Holy one’s own
Reflecting awe
Given freely
This poem is a punny paraphrase of Matthew 5:21-48, the middle portion of The Sermon on The Mount. The Sermon on The Mount is considered the core of Jesus’ teachings, his stump speech. The title alludes to one of my stock concepts in my poems, the notion of humans being reduced to math, mere calculations in an oppressive algorithm, and its lowest common dominator, conventional wisdom. This central litany of Jesus’ “You have heard it said, but I tell you” razes the bar and builds a whole, new worldview. Jesus’ message transcends the traditional message of religionists and secular conventional wisdom. This culminates in the proclamation that God rains on the just and the unjust. This indiscriminate love is the unending ideology that Jesus is found rooting, nurtured by such reign as is God’s. Jesus incarnated the reality that we are at our best when we are fully our self and fully God’s. Accepting and giving freely is the deepest nature of God that we can reflect in our lives. Jesus was such the juggernaut of grace whose designs were to overthrow the weighs of the whirled. Jesus did not desire to be some historical pinnacle set up on an untouchable pedestal and worshiped. Jesus lived to tear down the very notion of untouchable, the bedrock of dominating class. Anyone accessing the indiscriminate love that Jesus accessed, that is, asking for anything in Jesus’ name/character will surpass even Jesus’ accomplishments during his life: “Anyone who believes in me, will do the same works I do, and even greater works.” (John 14:12) Of course, indiscriminate love is a lousy foundation to rule over others, totally in sync with the instruction by Jesus to be servant leaders, not masters. Religion, committed to such a precept, will find itself at the heart of human needs, as the oppressed and dispossessed will be attracted like a magnet to non-judgment and working solidarity and service — awe without a needs assessment! Of course, you will find an enemy in the powers that be which depend of dividing and conquering for their dehumanizing weigh of life. I find great joy and solace in the summary (variously attributed) that Jesus only promised us three things: to be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble. May it be so!
