A Poem about the Suicide Bombings in Paris, Brussels, Lahore . . .

What God Wants

                                    For the victims in Paris, Brussels, Lahore . . .

If your God whispers in your ear,

Instructs you to kill innocents for his sake,

It is not God’s voice you are hearing:

It’s the voice of your own darkness speaking,

Or Satan’s voice,

Or the voice of a twisted person, insecure and weak.

Innocent babies, mothers, children,

Fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers,

Aunts, uncles, cousins, friends,

Or even strangers and sinners,

It is never God’s will

That they should be slaughtered.

And you, potential suicide bomber,

In your smallness and darkness,

God does not ask for your death,

Will not reward it—

Wants your little light and life

To open like the flowers of spring.

                        Robert M. Coughlin

                        March 28, 2016