Poem 080, Sonnet 34: Psalmody: Shall’t Be So O Lord? Poem by Samer Madbak

O God, wherefore hast thou forsaken us?
Wherefore art thou so distant from our aid?
Seeing that our spirits in despair are laid
A relish to the tyrant incubus?
Behold, O Lord, this deadly Tartarus
Lo! How our dreams are fled, our hopes relayed
By awful death, how freedom proved a shade
A horrid farce, a splitting cumulus.
O Lord, what bale is this? What dire cuss
Upon our hearts? What prosecuting blade?
Thine people suffer, God, we are betrayed,
Turn thou your face? Hold thou your loving thus?
Cease thou your care? Admittest thou the sword
That we should perish? Shall’t be so O Lord?


Adelaide
October 14th 1990