God left us

or did we leave him

Our bodies no longer

belong to us

and the soil of our

fields lack substance

God left us

in a moment when

we needed him most

we were sacrificed

we were made to suffer

and crawl on our knees

pleading for ‘peans

to value our lives

God left us

to hang from trees

to molest the women and children

to break the man

to scrape the barrel

to feel agony

to be in the news

to be seen as less than

what God left us

He left us

and we left him

All the songs that

were sung in fields

from mother to child

for the men on new roads

and for as long as

it took

to forget God

and where he left us

there has been no change

or resolution

or understanding of why

God left us

and now the trees

have bullet holes

and the fields have

cement walls

and the songs give

praise to money

and we don’t remember

how things were

in the land that God gave us

I see now why

and I can make sense of why

but it still hurts to say why

that when I think of why

my head spins out of control

why

God left us