Unconditional Love

 

 

What do I know about it?

Little, if anything,

What’s the quality of my practice?

In this, I am lacking.

 

Sounds kind of hollow

Whenever I hear it,

My example and what daily I see

Is a not a habit.

 

I still struggle with self

More than I should

And tell me if I could do better

You know I would.

 

Yes, I often talk to myself

Trying to convince me

That I am doing the best I can

But not truthfully.

 

Unconditional love

What is your grade?

I can tell you that as for myself,

Mine is a FAIL!

 

Don’t you begin to think

I am hard on myself

For of all the photos in my mind

I’m # 1 on my shelf.

 

You may say I am honest

Given my analysis

Because I have openly confessed

I am first on my list.

 

But admitting to guilt

Should not me excuse

Or anyone else, for that matter,

If the wrong they choose.

 

It is practically not easy:

Unconditional love,

Though Jesus demonstrated it

When he came for above.

 

 

There is absolutely no self

In unconditional love,

For you that scored yourself high

That’s what I’m talking of.

 

I am seeing the adjustment

You are already making,

Unconditional love is about giving

Far more than taking.

 

Now create two columns:

Under “Giving and Taking”

And show me that you give more

Than you rake in.

 

Do not include your bills

Or even your tithes:

Women, don’t include your husbands

Or husbands, your wives.

 

Check the good Samaritan

Back in the Bible time,

This was unconditional love;

He wasn’t just kind.

 

 

He risked his own life

For his life-long foe,

Very unlike the Levite and priest

Who no concern showed.

 

Unconditional love

Isn’t who is my neighbour

But rather, and fundamentally so,

Am I a neighbour?

 

Note the lawyer’s question:

“Who is my neighbour?”

And note Jesus’ pedagogical approach

In cluing him the answer.

 

Don’t ask the question

Who is my neighbour

But do the introspection and ask:

Am I a neighbour?

 

Luke 10:37

 

And he said,

He that shewed mercy on him.

Then said Jesus unto him,

Go, and do thou likewise.

 

Romans 5:7-8

 

For scarcely for a righteous man

Will one die:

Yet peradventure for a good man

Some would even dare to die.

 

But God

Commendeth his love toward us,

In that, while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us.

 

Herein then,

Is unconditional love:

That Jesus Christ gave up all,

Even heaven above.

 

Stewart Russell © November 28, 2024

 

Last Year Lights

 

Cheeze man!

Dese lights gihing me hell,

When I put dese down last year

Dey was working well.

 

I buy dese Christmas lights

Only last year

And duh getting more expensive!

This isn’t fair.

 

Not one complete string

Is not burning

And I telling wunna,

Right now, dis got me fuming.

 

Only last year!

And I put dem down good

And uh neatly wrap them up

As uh should.

 

 

And now, dis!

Dis cud be fuh real?

I change out so many bulbs

And evah time uh fail.

 

If only I cud find de receets

I wud cah dese back

And ask back fuh my money:

Dah’s a true fact!

 

I mek up my mind

Dis year I en buying none,

Not a string, not a bulb,

Not a single wun.

 

Duh too expensive

An’ I en got nuh money,

You cud laugh all you like

But I en fine it funny.

 

Last year lights

Does give nuff trouble,

Yuh is tek dem down wid expectation

But duh does bust yuh bubble.

 

Jest like some people-

Yuh is cahn depen’ pun dum;

Yuk better doan tek duh word,

Dum is nuff problum.

 

 

Dese last year lights;

I should o’ leff dum up,

I have a strong, strong feeling

I would o’ had better luck.

 

Yuh see me,

I done wid last year lights,

Cause it seem to me

I got a second-year blight.

 

Gih me some lights

Fuh my pre-Christmas gift,

Mek sure dum en last year lights;

Yuh ketch my drift?

 

Stewart Russell © December 4, 2024

 

Our Misleading “X”

Why place an “X”

Instead of a pass

A pass is what I desired

When I was in class

I scorned an “X”

But appreciated a pass

They determined who came first

And who came last

Awards were given 

On account of the pass

But now an “X” decides

The parliamentary class

Why place an “X”

Instead of a pass

Seems an irony to me

I am aghast

We are told to vote

By placing an “X”

That “X” means a pass

In an election context

So while at school

I struggle for a pass

For the “X” is out of place

In any form or class

But in an election

They do anything for an “X”

And when they don’t get it

They get very vex

The more “X’s” they get

The better the chance

To pass the public’s examination

And their life enhance

So that we award a pass

By issuing an “X”

And that awardee can walk up

The parliament steps

  

Then what about his record

If it deserves an “X”

You see what I mean

It gets more complex

He may still get the “X”

Though his record shows “FAIL”

And that gives him a pass

And into parliament he sails

What a graduation exercise

When an “X” shows pass

And is allowed to put someone

At the head of the class

I don’t mean to confuse

Or mixed signals send

But that’s precisely what happens

When an election ends

The winner gets the most “X’s”

But he doesn’t get failed

Yet at school my several “X’s”

Only got me some wales

Politicians are rewarded

For the “X’s” they obtain

But the students suffer instead

All kinds of pain

We use our misleading “X”

As our confidential vote

To select a representative

In whom we hope

We set them up to fail

When we give them an “X”

And when they actually fail

We always get vex

A pass might be better

Since “X” stands for “FAIL”

But it might be too late now

To deal with such a detail

Stewart Russell © May 2018