Clive James, 'Will Those Responsible Come Forward?'

[duathir.livejournal.com]

Cross-post from war_poetry:

[Cut for grim imagery]

Will Those Responsible Come Forward?

May the Lord have mercy on all those peoples
Who suffer from a perversion of religion –
Or, to put it in a less equivocating way,
Who suffer from an excess of religion –
Or, to come right out with it,
Who suffer from religion.

Let Him tell those catholic Protestants or protestant Catholics
Who in Northern Ireland go to bed on Saturday night
Looking forward to a morning of Holy Worship
That just this once they should make other plans –
Have a heavy cold, a stomach upset or a pulled hamstring
Severe enough to render them immobile,
With something similar for their children –
So that they will not be there to form a congregation
In a church just big enough for a small massacre.
Arrange this reprieve, Lord,
And if you can’t manage that much then for Christ’s sake
Hand the whole deal over to Allah.

( May the Lord with the assistance of Allah )

By Clive James