The Old Testament God Answers by Pattie Palmer-Baker

Moses and the Burning Bush by Sebastien Bourdon, 1642.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Forest Service spent a record $243 million last week battling forest fires around the country, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday. The agency has spent all the money Congress provided for fighting wildfires in the 12-month budget period, forcing it to borrow money from forest restoration work designed to reduce the risk of fires. That’s happened in six of the past 10 years, Vilsack said.
Associated Press, 9/4/15


THE OLD TESTAMENT GOD ANSWERS
THE QUESTION: WHY ARE THERE SO
MANY FOREST FIRES?

I burned for Moses.
My fingers seared his skin,
My words scorched his eyes –
I am who I am,
go free My people.
His yes blazed the paths
you all walk today.

Yet today when I burn in bushes,
people see coloured blossoms
or nothing at all.
My heat falls on deaf skin.
 
I am not pleased.

To get what I want –
chants
epics
mystery plays
sacrificial offerings,

I have to send
cyclones
earthquakes
tidal waves
floods.

Today I burn
in one million trees.

Today I hear the sweet sound
of prayers shouted,
of sacrifices offered –
take my house, not my life,
take the barn not the horses,

take me, not my child.

Sometimes Michael stays My hand
whispers, leniency, My Lord
let the child live.
He never asks Me to quell the fire,
he knows fire has freer will
than anything else I created.

Pattie Palmer-Baker

Visit poet and collage artist Pattie Palmer-Baker at www.pattiepalmerbaker.com.