This poem by Steve Stockman (all-round pop-culture surmiser) has rattled around my mind since I read it a few months ago. And it particularly seems to resonate with the Habakkuk series we’ve just been working through. So I reproduce it here in full.
NAILED (Covered in blood)
by Steve StockmanCovered in blood
The bomb debris across a market town
Alabama trees with their strange fruit
Auschwitz poignant sad sacred ground
Covered in blood
Apartheid’s ignorant and arrogant oppression
Suicide bombers in the New York skies
And vengeful acts of cold naked aggression
Covered in blood
All the explorer ships that sailed
To steal the lands the natives ploughed
Everything – nailed.Covered in blood
Every fist that punched his wife
Every holy man that touched a child
Every circumstance that denied a life
Covered in blood
Every exploitative capitalist gain
Every dealer who preyed on the innocent
Every doctor who could have prevented pain
Covered in blood
Every murderer who is rightfully jailed
Every angry thought without a gun
Everything – nailed!Covered in blood
The flowery words I use to deceive
The serial sinner inside my soul
And the days when I refuse to believe
Covered in blood
When my faith stands up too proud
My every selfish twisting of truth
When my insecurities scream out too loud
Covered in blood
All those times my determination failed
And failure to take a chance to fail
Everything – nailed!
