Poem - "Abusers"

Abusers

Abusers have known love
And have given love
And have turned away from love
At early ages.
They have felt humiliation
From people they trusted
Who taught them to internalize shame.

Shame is the illusion,
An intangible soul tattoo
That makes us see ourselves
As diseased mutations
Of what was formerly healthy.
More than that shame instructs us
To have faith in no faith.
As the shamed soul enters the ranks
Of the soldiers of crime
And begins to act out
Their self fulfilling prophecies
They live with the delusion
That they can never change.

I’m shouting from the sidelines
Where the crowd roars its obscenities
At the fallen men and women
Who walk in the chain gang
Towards internal and external prisons.
I shout out Love amidst the Hate.
And I am not alone.
There are others preaching Love
Making signs large enough to see
For friends and lovers,
Acquaintances and strangers
Who find themselves facing
Their own wrong thoughts,
Wrong speech,
Wrong actions.

Too many cast the first stone
Labeling others “sinners”
Ignoring the call for compassion
From our world’s greatest leaders.
There is much complaining
That to turn the other cheek
Is just too hard
Choosing to maintain
Positions of hate,
Positions that have set our species
On a course of self destruction.

To the Christians of this country,
You say Jesus died for our sins.
And if he did who did he also die for,
But for those most impoverished in their souls:
Molesters, Rapists, Murderers.
And yet you set yourselves above the man
You call your Lord.
Your standards are way too low
When you only love and praise
Those who are easy to love and praise.
Jesus raised the bar
To utter the holy aspiration
That we live as one.

Judas kissed Jesus
And then betrayed him
For a petty price.
To those who condemn Judas
Take a look in the mirror
For you have betrayed Jesus
When you condemn anyone.


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