Refugees & COVID-19
Mark 7:24-30

I am the daughter of the Syrian-Phoenician woman,
The child whom Jesus healed long ago.
Now we are in a refugee camp. My mother
Is dying from coronavirus and cannot breathe.

Her fever is high. The virus is like that demon.
But this time it ravages the lungs unlike the demon
That tore up my mind with that evil spirit.
I am looking for Jesus. No one can help us.

Your President has cut off funding from W.H.O.
The World Health Organization knows how to manage
A crisis on the ground: governments lie to their citizens.
Where is Jesus? He is nowhere to be found.

Our hospitals have been bombed. We need intensive
Care, an international rescue. No one will help us:
All we get is silence. The virus is sweeping the camps.
We need doctors, masks, gloves, ventilators.

Cramped like cattle in a stockyard, we live in tents.
Help us. Even the dogs in your humane society
Eat better than we do on crumbs of foreign aid.
Your indifference is killing us. Your hearts are ice.

Where does our help come from? Bishops
Sing God has the whole world in his hands.
But there are no hands in the refugee camps
But yours. Are Christians dead? Where is Jesus?

Who can make a vaccine to cast out this evil
Germ that eats away our lungs like a man dying,
Heaving breath on a cross from execution?
Who? Come quickly. People are dying.

Kemmer Anderson ‘67

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Life persists in the midst of its perpetual perishing. The coronavirus brings novel experience of staying apart and keeping life safe together when finding a pasqueflower blooming at Easter. This minute critter has played havoc with mighty humans. Nature is still there, wild nature, both predictable and chaotic. The devastating virus brings struggle and promising opportunities for more caring, love, and solidarity in our human communities. Death is not the last word.

This article is also online at: https://libarts.source.colostate.edu/qa-with-holmes-rolston-life-persists-in-the-midst-of-its-perpetual-perishing]]>