Mary Manifesto Meeting 16 February 2023
Solitary Weeper
(Written based on the story of Rizpah, 2 Samuel 21:1-14)
Why this hushed mutiny?
Repulsive Rizpah!
Land needs rains
Pay the price
With lives of saints
‘Coz someone sinned!
In dumb revolt
On the rock she spreads
Her sackcloth to sit
Not to flaunt her fury
But to divulge the truth
‘Coz someone sinned!
In stinking solitude
she stares into space
Her woe-ridden glance
Depicts doleful designs
Of sons done to death
‘Coz someone sinned!
Weeping in pain and grief
Her tears seeping into stone
Carve the macabre tale
Of Innocents placed on altar
To alter the fate of a nation
‘Coz someone sinned!
Sneering at the law,
The ‘loyal’ king and lawless creed
She decides to fight felonious folks,
And to wait and watch
How the Divine works
‘Coz someone sinned!
Keeping her vigil
Over sons mindfully mauled
For days, weeks, and months
By day to tackle fowls
By night to hound foxes
‘Coz someone sinned!
Rizpah’s silent stroke
Sounded the knell in hell
Heavens thundered
Thrones shook
Dead were buried
‘Coz a woman grieved!
Wake-up! repelling Rizpahs
To justice denied
Let the remains of the slain
And the remaining plain ̄
Human dignity regain
‘Coz lynching lingers!
Set aside religious platitude
Get into a healing solitude
A redemptive revolt
Rooted in the power of love
Love that defeats death and distance
‘Coz someone deserves!
Rizpah! No more an eyesore
You surely are a cynosure
Brought to a closure
Curse and conflict
Trauma and torment
‘Coz the Wangler is warned!