A poem by Catherine Bird, inspired by God’s People and the Seduction of Empire by Graham Turner and written during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We finally see the empires of things
for what they are;
purveyors of half truths
at best –
viral,
clogging the lungs of those
smaller kingdoms of kindness
that are our true breath.
This great death reveals one hope,
and one hope only –
that we, exiles from joy,
will now settle
in that land of promise
which has thus far in eternity
been mistook for folly.