Tastings

I have tasted the tears of poverty, and

I have tasted the bile of my stomach.

I have tasted the street and her captured folk,

I have tasted alienation and disenfranchisement.

I have tasted unemployment, and

I have tasted an uncompassionate system by the

numbers.

I have tasted employment and her slavery,

I have tasted alienation and disenfranchisement.

I have tasted love, and

I have tasted hate,

I have tasted infidelity and her offspring,

I have tasted alienation and disenfranchisement.

I have tasted loneliness, and

I have tasted crowds.

I have tasted peer pressure and her seductive ways

I have tasted alienation and disenfranchisement.

I have tasted theological debate, and

I have tasted a crisis of faith.

I have tasted academia and her captured folk,

I have tasted alienation and disenfranchisement.

I have taste religion, and

I have tasted spirituality,

I have tasted the church and self-righteous brood,

I have tasted alienation and disenfranchisement.

I have tasted wealth, and

I have tasted a crisis of want.

I have tasted economics and her captured folk,

I have tasted alienation and disenfranchisement.

I have tasted the tears of creation in pain, and

I have tasted the sickness of pollution.

I have tasted the environment and her rape,

I have tasted alienation and disenfranchisement.

I have tasted the dark stained dirt, and

I have tasted the oily water.

I have tasted creation and her aborted child,

I have tasted alienation and disenfranchisement.

I have tasted alienation and disenfranchisement, and

I have tasted the vomit of a world polluted.

Still— I have tasted redemption,

I have tasted Christ.

©Frank A. Mills, 2009