Street walk 4/10

We walked your streets

Between glittering city towers

And glittering skirts

We stood near the club

Outside the old police station

The music pumping

Anxiety thumping

Ashamed at my heart’s prideful repulsion

I want to run away

But the still small voice

Says plant your feet

And stay

So we pray

your Kingdom come

In the shadow of the cactus

In your city square

A behemoth of greed

Roars toward us

mouth wide

Feeding on our pride

Never satisfied

So we bow

And pray

Your kingdom come

We look toward the bank

Becoming less human

And more human-less

The hidden cost of business

Sleeping in the car park

So we pray

Your Kingdom come

We see your church

Looming tall

lord of the streets it calls its own

would you still call it yours?

If Jesus entered in would he

Turn the tables?

Set things straight with the leaders?

Would he be welcome

Amongst the riches?

So we pray

Your Kingdom come

An onward march to

That elusive mechanism of spinning numbers

And unfathomable power

The stock market

(so elusive we couldn’t locate it)

And we all complicit to some extent

Wrestling our wealth to the ground

So we pray

Your Kingdom come

Through the damp night

To the train platform

Where those laid low

Bent against the oncoming winds

Of principalities and powers

Find shelter

(If it can really be called that)

Is this where we’d stumble upon Jesus?

And so our prayer is carried

On wings through the dark night

As the train carries our bodies

To the comfort of our cars

And we pray

Deliver us from evil

From greed

From consumerism

From injustice

From selfish ambition

From hypocrisy

From pride

For you have all the power

All this is your kingdom

Forever

And ever

And ever

Amen

Photo courtesy Aimee DeHaan