Letter from the Prophet Amos

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Letter from the Prophet Amos

Could you not see the inevitabilities
Of putting your priests on pedestals;
Granting them power over you
Handing to them your impossible expectations?

And now you cry,
And now you howl in derision,
And now you deny,
And now you curse
The arrogance and the naiveté that
Fed their desire to please you
And give you meaning.

Could you not have paid attention
To the dry wrenched tears,
Listened to the silent voice,
The true God whispers
Into the spare brown dawn mountains
And the still silvered lakes of your soul?

You have cursed yourselves into a compact
With idols and empty promises;
You build new pedestals,
New priesthoods to guarantee
New inevitabilities.