Vineyard violence

He told many stories.

One centred on a vineyard

where opportunistic tenants flout the law;

employing violence

to intimidate their way to wealth.

Nothing new, here.

That tradition goes back to Ahab,

and far beyond; the ruthless grabs

for property and power.

They continue, gathering pace.

In our time the violence

may be more subtle; it is no less real

or cruel. It springs from corporations,

boardrooms, banks, and speculators;

as commodities, goods and services                                                                                                                

are traded and sold,

along with the poor.

Land is snatched,

forests are stripped and burned,

and people are moved on,

along with other inconvenient life-forms.

The earth is gouged and torn,

while mines and factories pour their despoliation

into clouds, rivers and oceans.

The storyteller told his tale

as an allegory of the fruits of generosity and love

expected from those who find themselves

in the divine kingdom.

Its catalogue of ascendingly violent acts

was, of course, made up;

a literary device designed to engender outrage

among his hearers.

The violence that attends our planet

and its peoples, however,

is bleedingly real.

There are, at story’s end,

two assurances: that the cruel and brutal

will receive justice,

and that those who are otherwise unworthy

will be graciously included.

We can only hope

that these promises might be true.

© Ken Rookes 2014