Let Us Pray (to the Supreme Court)
Please stand and let us pray
O’ Mighty Supreme Court
Blessed are your rulings.
Tell us what to do today
And to whom we must be forced to pray
Besides yourselves
And let us know
As we wait to be told
Our more restricted role
Allowed to us this day.
O’ Mighty Supreme Court
Blessed are your rulings.
We accept the deaths we could prevent
To our children and other innocents
In schools and churches
Homes and streets,
By your anointing of all guns
In all places, anywhere
Where people meet.
O’ Mighty Supreme Court
Blessed are your rulings.
We eagerly sacrifice our daughters to you
On the basis that someone else’s belief is true
And not their medical health,
Knowing that they must honor
Their rapist, uncle, brother, male cousin, stranger, father
Who by force impregnates them
Even at the age of twelve or any age
And knowing that great pain of mind and body
Potential complications
And bleeding out unto death
Or years of family impoverishment
Maybe their lot –
As their bodies are not their own
They have no choice,
For further we recognize that only men
Can own their own bodies,
More specifically white men
And more specifically rich white men
And the rest of us are chattel.
O’ Mighty Supreme Court
Blessed are your rulings.
We are glad to breath the poisoned air
Drink the poisoned water
Eat the poisoned food
So that a few rich folks
Can live in pristine lands
In pristine ways
Away from us,
And once more we ask that you bless us
By raising our tithes,
That you give to them,
Five-fold as you will.
O’ Mighty Supreme Court
Blessed are your rulings.
We remember that
Liars are leaders
And we must not believe
Our eyes and ears
For ignorance makes everything
Easier to swallow,
And to end this prayer, especially bless
Saint Thomas of the Court
Who, despite the color of his skin
And all the repression that it represents,
Exults white “Christian” males
And their rules
To be above us all,
And who teaches us that we must hate
All who are other,
Whatever form it takes.
A-mend-ment.
You may be seated.
Carl Scott Harker ©2022
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My latest book of poetry is now available on Amazon, you can find it here: Lyrics Looking for a Musician.