Scan

 

 

 Just four letters

But a wide array of uses,

You’d better get the context right

To avoid any abuses.

 

English is complex

And the reason is clear,

A word can mean many things

So please be aware.

 

Similarly, so is scan

As in “scan the document”

And even this is ambiguous:

Not of clear intent.

 

 

It could well mean

For printing some copies

Or to quickly read it through

If one is in a hurry.

 

Nightly I praise God

As I scan the night sky,

Yes, honour, praise and glory

To God Most High.

 

 

There is the CT scan

Also known as a CAT scan:

An Xray device that doctors use

To see inside of man.

 

Or the security scan

Used to test for metal

Like guns, knives and devices

That can be lethal.

 

Scan can be cursory

Or scan can be intense

Like the kind of scanners used

In a country’s defense.

 

Scan can be sweeping

Or just a glance through

But a surgeon’s minute scan

Determines his view.

 

You can scan this poem

Or read it through,

Whichever one you decide on,

That’s your view.

 

2Chronicles 6:9

 

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro

Throughout the whole earth,

To shew himself strong in the behalf of them

Whose heart is perfect toward him.

Stewart Russell © January 4, 2025

 

Very Sad Indeed

I know a person

That has no head

Yet he is living

Instead of dead

His situation

I particularly dread

He is up all night

He has no bed

He lost his head

Sometime ago

When at school

He was quite slow

No teacher’s fault

Or even a school’s

He did not care

He played the fool

He seldom went

So he did not learn

Now without a head

He has heartburn

The streets are his

Both day and night

He lives on scraps

O what a plight!

He is unkempt

He’s a terrible sight

He cannot distinguish

Wrong from right

Started with a spliff

Marijuana I mean

Then coke and crack

Then he careened

If you have a head

Don’t lose it please

If you lie with dogs

You will get fleas

  

Very sad indeed

That’s your view

But believe you me

It’s my view too

Stewart Russell © November 2018

Disillusioned or A Pharisee?

Your View

 

I never do anything wrong

Because unlike you I am strong,

I am not a weakling as you are

You and I are definitely not on par.

I am different from you in many ways,

Ways that you can’t even perceive,

If I reveal to you all I am

You would surely not believe.

There is only one of me

And the mold cannot be found,

Search all you wish across the globe

There is no such mold around.

So what is different you might ask

Well already you see what I mean,

It should have been obvious even to you

But I’m not surprised you haven’t seen.

That’s one thing I thought you knew

You’re even less than I thought of you,

However I trust by the time I’m through

You will have agreed to my point of view.

One primary difference that you will see

Is I am better than you at any task

And my intelligence far surpasses yours

Is another point you’ll need to grasp.

What I have accomplished you have not

And what I’ve forgotten you’ll never learn

For that you would need a few lifetimes,

You cannot achieve it in one sojourn.

By now you are getting tired of me

At worst that is a case of envy

And if perchance it is something else

At best it’s probably jealousy.

It also confirms the point I made

That before I ended you would agree

Between you and me is no comparison,

I’m surprised you so quickly see.

For to compare yourself to me

Is to compare a Gentile and Pharisee,

The massive gap you are trying to bridge

Is bordering on impossibility.

Now I see that you are upset

Having quickly accepted my proof

But be assured that such a reaction

Is your admission to this truth.

There is much more that I could share

But surely this little has sufficed

For given the rate at which you agreed

I didn’t have to say it twice.

Conceited you probably think I am

I have ample reason to be,

Disillusioned? No, not the slightest chance

For I am a Pharisee.

Pharisees know who they are

And certainly what they believe

Unlike the Sadducees and Publicans

They are so easily deceived.

Not to mention the Gentiles

Who do not figure in the mix at all,

Dogs more fit their comparison

As a Pharisee I stand tall.

Disillusioned or a Pharisee?

The former is out of the question

A Pharisee is definitely who I am

All others are disillusioned.

My Response

I agree with your appraisal

You are certainly not disillusioned,

You are too aware of the wrong you do

To enter a plea of utter confusion.

Therefore you are without excuse

When the time of your judgment is come,

All other sinners that truly repent

Will be admitted into God’s kingdom.

Then you’ll be left out in the cold

Or in the heat to be more precise,

No doubt at that coming occasion

You will then regret all your vice.

Your greatest vice was in trying to earn

A place in the kingdom of God

Only to lose that for which you sought

Deceived by the fraud of frauds.

Stewart Russell © 2017