This is one of those poems where the last line comes to you first.Â
I was thinking of my father’s anguish, as he went through his hospitalization in the summer and early fall of last year. And how no person should ever have to suffer like that.Â
And I realized, that right now, the whole country is suffering in this way, battling pain, wondering when it will ever end.Â
As usual, I describe the problem. But I , like you, am at a loss, to find an answer. That is, beyond the simple admonition, to persist.
What is this, we,
Mankind, endure—
Endure with all our might?
This pain we feel:
We seek the cure.
To set it all to rights.
What is this sight
That scars our eyes
And strikes the wise man blind?
What gives a fright
To youth, surprises old,
And blurs the lines?
That foul decay.
That wretched breeze.
That festering, putrid ploy,
When God creates
A new disease
To set a-sail—Ahoy!
His prized creation,
Basking, in
The light of His own love,
Cannot believe
Such wickedness
Could come from God above.
What witchery
Must be to blame?
What incubus? What sprite?
Some sorcery,
Some demon’s kiss
Has set this world alight.
Yet, like poor Job,
Awash with sores,
His former strong faith ebbing,
We’ll follow God
To Hell and back.
And back again,
To Heaven.
Copyright 2020 Andrea LeDew
For another take on COVID-19 from earlier in the pandemic, read Goliath.
For another poem, lamenting that we can no longer be together and celebrate without fear or worry, read my poem from St Patrick’s Day 2020, Saints Day.
By the way, I love the image of the tiny study at the top of the stairs! I may use that!
These are the hardest questions of all. The answer “God gave us free will” is hard to understand and accept.
Good point Liz. I think the medieval St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas both wrote about free will. I took a philosophy course taught by an ex-priest in college and we read some of each.
Random googling brought up this quote of Aquinas’s which sounds familiar, perhaps from popular preaching:
“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
Not terribly helpful for “ye of little faith.”😊
Another good one which applies (or should) in our day:
“A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.”
If to be rational is to be able to use ones own unfettered intellect, undue influence from any source would limit ones free will. So for example,following a false messiah might cause one to choose wrongly, since so many choices would be wrongly predetermined by that leader.
Another thing about our experience now versus that of previous generations who endured plagues, is our conviction that we can control everything.
In earlier Christian times this would be considered the pinnacle of arrogance and vainglory.
Only now that our self confidence is shaken, do we consider whether humanity’s belief in its own power to change the world might, in some sense,be sin.
My dad was an Episcopal priest, and we had many, many of these converations late at night in his tiny study at the top of the stairs. I think I have to go with the early Christians that the behavior we’re seeing on the part of so many people in this country is the pinnacle of arrogance and vainglory. The fact that so many people are dying because of it makes it sinful.
“For the wages of sin is death,” Romans 6:23 (per Google anyway.)
Your father sounds wonderful. My father was a man of great faith but of few words. My mom was the philosophical one and both my husband and I treasure our memories of late night conversations with her. How we miss them when theyre gone! 😢
You are so right. I miss both my parents terribly. Their memories are so, so precious.