O, Foolish Man

By David Roth

© 12^th March, 2011

We play with the clouds,

seeding them with every manner

of obscenity, believing in our

foolish ignorance,

that our actions have no consequences,

and that the air we breath

and the water we drink

are safe despite our senseless manipulation.

Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1: 9-10)

We fiddle with our genes

change the makeup of the food

we grow and eat, and think

that our foolish manipulations

don’t carry over to the innocent beings

who ingest these promethean aberrations.

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.  (Genesis 1:11-12)

We murder fellow humans,

for athletics shoes, a handful of pills,

a ‘look’ we didn’t like,

a faith we don’t share,

and the liquid decay of leviathan

sixty-five million years extinct,

and ponder the rising of the sea,

the warming of the air,

and the trembling of the earth.

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences,  and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:6-8)

And foolish creatures that we are,

we think we have it all under control.

Have you not known? Have you not heard?  Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?  It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,  And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. (Isaiah 40:21-22)

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says…(Revelation 3:13)