Poetry

To those who proclaim
that God helps those
who help themselves,

who believe that the hungry
slouch through the streets
with their bootstraps hanging
loose around their ankles,

who see Jesus whipping
immigrants out of the temple
and writhing on the cross
so the rich can keep
more of their gold,

consider Leviticus 19,
which commands the farmers
to leave the margins
of their fields unplowed

and to leave the grapes
that have fallen in the vineyard
during harvest

so that the poor can come
and gather them
at the end of the day,
alone with their God,
consumed by that sweet, red fire.

Tania Runyan lives in Lindenhurst, Ill.