“Talaiporus” – Brings These Folks To Mind (Romans 7:24)

“Talaiporus” - wretched – yes I guess she is –
Or he as case may be in healing biz;
Three-quarters of a year the treatment’s been;
We sent the money, all the rest’s unseen.

One thing about that gift at sixty-five –
One gift to mark the date means s/he’s alive;
Despite what happens in our caper here,
I know that gift is working, health to clear.

For leprosy, that cocktail of three drugs
For someone thus afflicted, is the slug
Which gives the knock-out punch to what’s within,
So those afflicted can new lives begin.

No homestead needed in the prairie bush;
No Darcy Island haven; nor the rush
And scurry of a boat trip across the Strait;
No Carville, nor sweet rest which there awaits.

Paul writes, “O wretched man” – “Talaiporus” I;
Perhaps – for all with struggles sometimes sigh
And wonder at the road they’re on today;
For lepers here – no cash, so hell to pay.

Oh yes, I know it’s fiction – costs are spread,
So operation’s help comes ’fore there dead;
For treatment costs a bundle, takes a crew
To get the pills to Hanson’s patients few.

But if you’re one, like Arthur long ago,
Before the cocktail’s mix they came to know,
For them to hand out pills and change his life,
Would turn his road from devastating strife.

So yes, three hundred plus is all it took
To get the drugs to one – so now we look
Ahead to three more months, for then I see
One wretched life turned ’round, new life indeed.

“Who will deliver?” Paul asks with a moan;
In Christ he found he did not walk alone,
And bear his wretched burden of the day;
Today a clutch of pills provides a way.

So, what’s the cost (or value) in this case?
About the cost for us to live two days;
One-fifth a camera-back with features new;
Six tanks of gas; a corporate shell with you.

The only thing that’s left for me to ask,,
Is “What’s the net result in coming task?”
Expenditures we make, move things along;
Do they provide relief when things go wrong –

For other folks – the wretched folks of life
Who also want a home, a job, a wife;
But can’t, because they’re stricken in their prime,
With sicknesses – curable if stopped in time?

But I’m the type who asks – “What’s in the cost
Of drugs?” Or “Is delivery where it’s lost?”
Behavior of the group needs to be fixed,
For life to come when “wretched’s” in the mix.

That’s where I want to zig where others zag;
Fill in when I behind the others lag.
Some help – respond to wretchedness themselves,
While I prefer to stop the source of hell.

So that’s where I deploy my time and cash;
Not all of it – like here – when people ask,
“Can you help out a bit, get drugs for one,
’Fore you return to work, long-distance run?”

navigation