If I'm laden at all, I am laden with the thought of a hungry child…
How would we feel if our grandchild went hungry?
This would be unacceptable, yet there are millions of starving grandchildren…
If I'm laden at all, I am laden with the thought of families living in the streets,
Children and fathers and mothers living under highways, in the subways,
Sleeping on the ground, in the parks…how do we sleep?
If I'm laden at all, I am laden with the thought of the elderly being abused,
Yes the ones who have reached their golden years, only to be left alone,
Alone to stare at the walls, in a strange room never imagined…
“Was this what it was all for?” That is what they ask; no one should die loveless,
No one should die alone…
If I'm laden at all, I am laden with mankind’s acceptance of the unacceptable…
We should not be comfortable with this world; this world is a failure, it is foiled…
If I'm laden at all, I am laden with those who ignore, who choose not to question,
Are not humans responsible for what happens here?
Can we say we are not human? Some have said this when they look close,
Close at the wars and crime and poverty and genocide all around us: “it’s not human”,
Ah, but it is all too human, therein lays the problem…
If I'm laden at all, I am laden with the fact that man has turned from the Creator…
Yes the Creator; Mr. Darwin tried to deny his existence, with due recognition:
Mr. Darwin was a fool; men may act as if they crawled out of a pond,
Yet man at one time was glorious,
Especially so in that they brought glory to their Creator,
Then there was the descent, the turning away from the one who gave it all…
If I'm laden at all, I am laden with the fact that most men have followed this course,
The course and scheme of the great slanderer, the rebel; his days are surely numbered…
If I'm laden at all, I am laden with my own shortcomings, my own sin…
It is my hope that I can remain on the side of the great God, the Almighty,
It is my true desire to help all to learn of his un-surpassing love…
© Joseph James
7-14-09 from 'O the Elms' (to be released in spring of 2017)
inspired by the song "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother "
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