Reading the Bible for Iraq

The first page I read about Iraq
it was called Eden,
a place God planted and loved
a place where pomegranate and fox
were named,
but all too soon
there were brothers fighting.

And the second page,
Iraq was Nineveh.
God was trying to teach a prophet
a bellyful of tolerance
and a shady spot of hope,

but Jonah was concerned
how many of our soldiers and dollars
were lost in another’s war,

so God said,
Should I not pity Nineveh
in which there are so many people
who do not know why Shiite
cannot make peace with Sunni

and their children
and pomegranates and foxes?

The last page was
old seared lips, ducking the angel wings,
and here-I-am Isaiah,

who foresaw a day
when Egypt
and Assyria (Iraq’s name that time)
and Israel – all three together
will be a blessing

in all the earth.

And may God bless the reading and the hearing
and our living
of any one of these words.

(Isaiah 19:24-5)