you can't tell just by looking ..

you can't tell
   just by looking
   or listening
not much has changed
   on the face of it

   from a surface view

but a killer moves yet
snaking very long fingers across the compass
leaving 6-foot Holes all along the way
   like footprints
hellish portals       almost

and planet Earth totters       slightly
drunken       like
   on the blood of the Holes
as Sheol opens her rapacious jaws ..
   insatiable beast

you can't tell like that
but       there are spaces
   Holes in the air
      where our neighbour stood       just yesterday
..

and we want numbers

people reduced to math
Images digitized
trends
and death trails
rates
and percentages
and graphs ..
..


that hawk soars
silhouette against the darkening skydrop
welcome prop for a life that seems diminished
diminishing       somehow

soar bird       soar!
remind me that my view
   is but a view
that life has met the terrors of evil before
   and limped away to live another day

and too .. even if we perish
   at the bloodied hands of this Serpent-With-Many-Crowns
we will stretch our life out
   through
   into
      life in another form
         renewed
         refreshed
         re-energized
            by the One who will one day vanquish this beast
               along with every other beast ever       ever
and we will all walk together
   in new Life
   at peace with our world
   our planet at peace with us
      now released from the frustration of decay
            freed!
               in the wake of the glory of all God's children
..

you can't tell just by looking
but the Life that gives life gives life
and there is life
and there will be life
and all will be well
and God will be all
   in all

amen