booksartyoume

'thoughts on turning the other cheek' timothy r gates, 11/23/2006

'if a person slaps your cheek,
turn and offer them the other'
I might do this
I may not do this for you
I AM free to offer you one to four cheeks,
if I choose
Image of the Divine, we're said to be
If I slap you, or you slap me,
do we slap God?
Does God then offer the other cheek?
One, two, or three or four cheeks?
If I do not have a sense of humor and kick your ass,
does God understand my momentary lapse of self-control?
Does God get pissed off?
God or the Gods have kicked ass, we're told
If I choose not to kick ass,
if there's a God or Gods who kick ass,
whose cheek gets slapped?
'to forgive is Divine'
how Divine is it to watch a rape, or incest, or starvation, or shit happening to innocents?
Pacifists have fists
Only three times have I not remembered to turn my other cheek, on my face
I see the video of each time, still
I chose not to hit the delete button
Sometimes the Divine has no easy choice
Sometimes I AM unable to turn any cheek to another person
Maybe, in a Zen collective consciousness sort of way,
when I slapped those three other persons, years ago,
I slapped myself,
since I AM my neighbors neighbor,
and they mine?
If not,
perhaps I truly got pissed three times.