MERCY

If it were deserved

It would not be Mercy

Said the mother to the king

It’s badly needed now

That a long Indian

Summer has suddenly

Turned

Bleak and bitter

The wind rushing

Through the open

Doors of a cold church

We turn on every light

To offset this noontime

Dark

The sadness of a life

Once full of innocent

Promise and hope

Turned

We will not belittle

The damage done

The legacy of hurt

We the undeserving

And God alone

Can make sense

Of all the  wrong

Tame the wild

Impulse of a man

Fatal addiction

And heal what

Will not or does

Not want healing

Mercy is what

We are looking for

Stirring in the womb

That is best understood

By motherhood

Abundant as the

Rain torrenting down

On his remains