How long, O Lord, how long
Will you leave your people drowning
As the surging waters rage, and suck
from fragile lungs their final choking gasp?
You whose tears of compassion used to fall
As gentle rain! They now appear to spurt
In wild lament as mother earth
Cries out at her despoliation.
How long, O Lord, how long
Will you leave your people homeless
In the anguished aftermath of nature’s savage
Trail of wanton, meaningless destruction?
You who before time or matter came to be,
Brooded over the waters, and in gentleness
Called chaos into order: where are you now
As textured lives are washed away to tatters?
How long, O Lord, how long,
Before, beside still waters, you lead your people
Once again? But then within the echoing void
A whisper on the rippling watered wind:
“You are my body now – it is for you to do”.
A lament at the savage destruction
Reeked by the worst flooding in
Pakistan in generations
August 2010
