Unrequited

Haiku of failure

Unrequited love;

God’s for Israel. Little

wonder that God weeps.

Prophet Hosea

brings the word of God’s anguish

along with judgement.

They went their own way,

ignoring the call of God

for justice and truth.

Profound love imaged

in the tender embracing

of parent with child.

This is a strange God,

feeling rejection; needy

and so capricious!

The anger; is it

because of faithlessness, or

the failure to love?

God’s recoiling heart,

refusing harsh punishment;

the power of love.

Judgement is forestalled!

The God of second-chances,

the God we worship.

Return, O people!

God who balances justice

with mercy awaits.

© Ken Rookes 2022 

All in the family

 

All in the family

Haiku of embarrassing nomenclature

Instructed by God,

prophet Hosea marries

prostitute Gomer.

It happens. A man

becomes smitten. Takes a chance;

It might just work out.

Marriage and message

jumbled in the prophet’s life.

Call that commitment!

Filled with sin, the land

has played whore with other gods.

A faithless marriage.

Prophet and harlot

have a child. Name him “Jezreel,”

place of death and blood.

A daughter this time.

Call her “Not Pitied.” Israel

is not forgiven.

A third child, a son.

Make his name “Not my people.”

I am not your God.

Yet, in the end, grace;

hope. They will be called “Children

of the living God.”

© Ken Rookes 2022

Meet the kids: the prophet Hosea introduces his family

G’day, mate.
It has been a long time.
This is the wife, Gomer,
and the kids.
Yeah, she’s always liked bright colours,
haven’t you dear?
I keep telling her that she’s a natural beauty,
that she doesn’t need so much make up,
but she never listens to me.
No, I never thought I’d get married either,
didn’t seem to go with the lifestyle,
but I guess that the Lord had other ideas.
Domestic bliss?
We have our ups and downs.
This one’s our eldest, we call him Coniston*.
His sister, there, her name’s Pathetic Cow,
and the baby; we christened him Refugee.
Yes, I chose the names. Well, no;
it was the Lord, really.
It’s a prophecy thing.
Think about it.
Yeah, we’re all hoping that when they’re older
the message might change
and we can give them new names,
like Mercy, Joy, and Welcome.
I think the Lord would like that, too.


* The Coniston massacre was a series of killings of Aboriginal
people in Central Australia in 1928.


© Ken Rookes 2013