Jack Pelham

Lurking
For fear of
Doing anything else,
He keeps life at arm’s length
In hope that it can be sufficiently enjoyed
From the silent safety of the shadows.

And seeing what he is doing,
I imagine him matured and
Beyond this tentative beginning.

If you would like to observe a fool in its natural habitat,
I can tell you one place you’re almost certain to find one.

The pendulum may continue to swing until
Modern man doesn’t know how to do anything anymore
Except to work a job to pay someone else to do everything for him—
Farming out nearly everything out until he has forgotten how to do anything for himself.

He had got that most peculiar habit
Of vetting things before believing them—
Which had had the most ironic effect
Of making his own life so much the better
In its own right,
While being an aggravant to
The careless world around him.

So many who long to be “used by God”
Are operating under the false impression
That this happens mostly on special assignments
And is separate from the mundane obligation
To live a godly life.

What they want, it seems,
Is to be proud—
The prospects of actual godliness
Being unsatisfying to them.

You may resist seeing it this way, but I observe that
Church is for many a sanctuary
From the righteous requirements of God—
A refuge from accountability—
A collective conspiracy to imagine
That he is other than who the scriptures say he is, and
That he has no high expectations of man after all,
And that it’s all just a big misunderstanding—
If not a contemptible act of satanic heresy—
That anyone would think he does.

One thing you should understand about
How humans handle fact and logic
Is that there are practical considerations
That are more important to many
Than are fact and logic.

He boldly declared that it is flat-out wrong
To have any rule that’s not in the Bible.
And I asked whether this would include
The very rule he was stating—as there is
No such rule to be found in the Bible.

It’s not generally considered in good taste
To speak honestly about stupid people—
Though I should note that speaking stupidly
About honest people is still in high fashion.

Though I certainly understand how it works,
I will never cease to be amazed at the dumb junk
A guy can make up on the spot
In order to keep from believing
Something he doesn’t like.