Carlos Mejia Godoy: Refrain for the Charred Christ

You, LORD,
maker of the universe,
sculptor of the light,
goldsmith of truth,
forger of justice.

You, Lord, who writes
the biography of each ant
and the genetic code of each star.

You, Lord,
who knows our dreams
better than the psychiatrists,
and can differentiate the music
nesting in the heart of the just
from the corrosive spasms
in the mind of tyrants.

DON’T FORGIVE THEM LORD,
DON’T FORGIVE THEM,
BECAUSE THEY DO KNOW WHAT THEY DO.

Look, LORD,
how stupidity and cynicism
flow unchecked
and how the frenetic serpent
curls up
to sink its teeth
into the shepherds
of an unarmed people.

They’re lost, LORD
alienated
sunken in the dark corner
of history
in the viscous vertex of hysteria.
And it’s irreversible, Lord,
once they hit bottom
there’ll be no human force
capable of redeeming them.

DON’T FORGIVE THEM LORD,
DON’T FORGIVE THEM,
BECAUSE THEY DO KNOW WHAT THEY DO.

LORD,
just as you decipher
the language of the birds
you can decipher the infamy
in the clinking of their coins
in the rustling of their bracelets.
Because YOU, LORD,
like no one else,
can divine the road map
of the perverse
and read the compass
of those who navigate
-delirious –
in the turbulent waves
of hatred and rancor.

They’re portrayed there,
those champions
of the sad vocation
of deceiving the pure being.
But you LORD,
will not be spoon fed lies,
much less mistake a wolf for a sheep.

DON’T FORGIVE THEM LORD
DON’T FORGIVE THEM
BECAUSE THEY DO KNOW WHAT THEY DO.

The people know to warn.
KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!
because YOUR BLOOD, LORD,
will pursue them with no truce
and your lash of justice will reach them
even in the most intricate corners
where they hide to wound and kill.

Could it be, LORD, that they forgot
that you direct the perfect flight of the seagulls
and can walk on the grooves
of men’s footprints?

DON’T FORGIVE THEM LORD
DON’T FORGIVE THEM
BECAUSE THEY DO KNOW WHAT THEY DO

Possessed by their hatred
They may destroy all the temples
they may machine gun the tabernacles
they may stomp on the custodias
they may reduce to ashes the altars
but the FAITH of the PEOPLE
will not be erased.
not with the razor edges of the bayonets
not with the empty and monotone rhetoric.
And the day will come
Sooner rather than later
In which this CHARRED CHRIST
will emanate the light
that will blind them once and for all.

DON’T FORGIVE THEM LORD
DON’T FORGIVE THEM
BECAUSE THEY DO KNOW WHAT THEY DO