Our Kind

Rarely do I meet a likable missionary knocking at my door.
Atheists are more my kind of people. They do not press
nor intrude to evangelize.

Atheists say they do not believe in God (take or leave it.)
I believe them, that the God they do not see,
is the very One I seek.

But who should care what they or I believe,
and what they do not see or who I seek?
To love is what is crucible...

And not to love out of let's-pretend,
as bombers are showered with affection
before they suicide, nor to love as Hitler loved his dog,

nor to love as Goebbels loved his dark knight Hitler,
but to love the human family in its complexity, entirely -
regardless of its condition, no man in my sight an alien;

every woman to me my mother, my sister, my daughter
except the crucifix to which I'm wed.


Love is what is crucible,
and not as Hitler loved his German Shepherd Blondi,
or as Goebbels loved his dark knight Hitler.

Love's flame is lamp not holocaust.
Love profoundly loves the human family,
includes all, excludes no one regardless of condition

Let no man ever be to me an alien;
all women be to me mothers, sisters and daughters,
except the crucifix I married.