Have been beheaded, men of faith,
Egyptians from their homeland gone
To seek employment, made the pawn
To men’s ambitions who allege
A Prophet’s missive bears no hedge
For that is what his holy Scripture saith.
Twenty-one pawns within a game
For world supremacy, in Quest
To dominate, and so proclaim
Jihad against the craven shame
Of infidels—good men and true
Who gave their testament unto
Crucified Jesus. Send them to his breast.
What of the wives, now widows, and
Children, relations now bereft
These loving men felled by the hand
Of hideous religion’s band
Asserting itself judge and jury
Of whom to save and whom to bury—
What of these now bereaved and grieving left?
Father, we beg thee Mercy. Love,
Forgive us our trespasses; teach
Us how to emulate enough
That gentle spirit’s sterner stuff
Revealed us in the Gospel: how
We may love them that slay us now,
Nor not the message of forgiveness breach.
So recently, as I recall,
Boastful churchgoers waged their war
Upon the innocent; made fall
Into despair, or counseled crawl
Within a world of rampant slaughter
Sparing no mother’s son nor daughter,
Their artful words from Christian ethos far.
Let me remember, as a man,
These murderers of twenty-one
As self-proclaimed Muhammadan
Adherents to a boastful plan,
Resemble me in human flesh,
Present no praxis new or fresh—
So temper my remorse at what they’ve done.
Twenty-one children, Father, let
Them live forever in thy See
Of holy love, and their crowns set
Within accordance, sans regret,
Of thy Son’s own. Lord, teach us not
To rage but even as was taught
By Jesus: to let loving set us free.