Daniel the Prophet Complains to Gabriel
In the citadel at Susa on the banks of the Ulai—
or maybe the ram stands on Wall Street, the goat
blows across the Seine—barn stock rampage,
terrorizing stars, casting down sanctuaries.
Barricades collapse—cathedrals and towers
a vapor, a black wall, a steel and granite pool.
When will it end?
…………………………………….It is not just kingdoms
that will rise and fall, but your temple, your song.
Religion faithless? Hymns with no words?
Whispered rosaries, hollow doctrines, hollow
men? The great twin horns—doubt, despair
—shove us to our sick bed.
…………………………………….Get up, man. Worship
this way: in spirit, in truth, a Shepherd, a Lamb.
.
Janna Schledorn’s poetry has appeared in Adanna Literary Journal, Revelry and other journals. In 2016, she won the Thomas Burnett Swann Poetry Prize from the Gwendolyn Brooks Writers Association of Florida. Poems from this series have also appeared in Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry.
Amethyst Review 