The Fixity Of Species

There's being and becoming,
Evolving and the zap;
For some folks things are changing,
For others, little gap
For movement once created –
Just cleaning up the mess,
From downside life of evil,
To God's own wondrousness.

Are we just stuck – no changing?
Just shining up the bowl?
Or is there room for movement
From part to life that's whole?
I shudder at the concept
Of people locked in tight,
For in that structured picture
It's down to flight or fight –

Intimidate – submission;
A place for every man;
Each man within his station;
As how old Europe ran.
Creation – evolution
I hear its echoes here
A fixity of species –
No change in structures drear.

I hear of speed and slowness
In neighbour down the way;
Of privilege withholding
What's gained by force each day.
It's not I don't see constants
In life, and gifts, and skills;
It's more I hear them coming
Who justifies their will.

It's how they see their life space,
Not just in how things start;
It's bigger than creation,
And God's creative part.
It's all about position,
Of gain, and loss, and score;
A seizing from the weakest
By those who grasp for more –

Of privilege and power;
Exclusion’s haughty air,
Of justifying present
Against tomorrow's ‘fair’.
Insidious its odour,
Conservatism's stench;
Obnoxious as the Liberals’
Abandoned lecherous wench.

I think what's more unchanging
Is grip of sin on thought –
Our lust for cash and power,
Preferring ‘is’ to ‘ought’;
Then masking our illusion
With scientific words,
To squelch the hope of changing
As phony ‘truth’ is heard.

Two sides line up their forces
And truth goes out the door –
It's black and white no greyness,
First casualty of war.
I am sickened by the rancour,
With greed and lust at base,
While words of church and teachers
Make tight each phony case.

So kids on both sides buy it –
A life of ‘fix’ or ‘flux’,
Then grow up feeding armies
‘For our side, fight we must’.
What claptrap, what malarkey!
Go chase yourself I'd say,
Or dump this rigid thinking
And make for better way:

For givers – not so greedy;
Perceivers – not so harsh;
For servers – loosen up more;
Compassion folks – let's march;
Encourager's – hush up now;
And teachers – skip your pride;
Administrators – back off;
Let's all in love reside.

Skip rhetoric of passion;
Self-justifying words;
Move on from fixed positions
Till all in fact are heard.
The fixity of species
Is in our rigid thoughts;
Not just the greatly aged,
More based on what we've got.

I'm sick to death of hassles,
Of getting more today
So I, like God, can give you
Great gifts and have my way.
Let God back in the center
Of being, life, and thought;
Till hearts of swordly metal
Be ploughshares as they ought.

Stop twisting truth and science
To suit our chosen way,
And saying all is stable –
Tomorrow's like today.
Let's gather around the table,
Walk hand in hand from here;
In awe and wonder joyous,
Let hope of change appear.

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