Skyscrapers
Nov 24, 2019, 11:58 PM
Ruth Johnson
Then God blessed Adam and Eve,
And told them have many,
Many, many children,
Enough to fill the earth,
Even Montana!
To be masters of birds and beasts,
Fruits, herbs, all bearing seeds,
There for everyone to eat.
A Garden so precious, fragrant and rare,
Meant to be planted everywhere.
No death, no sickness, great food!
God said it was good.
Well, we know the story
Of how all that changed,
The snake in the Tree,
Then came the rain.
Afterwards, Noah planted again.
And again God blessed them,
Told him and his sons,
Be fruitful and multiply,
Fill the whole earth
With your little ones!
Now, after the flood
The beasts became food
And God did not say
That was good.
It did not take long
As they journeyed from the East,
Of Eden, that is,
To a plain called Shinar.
There, the “shining one”, Nimrod,
Began to build a city and a tower.
We know how that went over,
God destroyed the tower,
Confounded the languages,
Scattered everyone about
Over the whole earth
As was His original plan.
What have we done since then?
Built multitudes of cities
Chock full of towers
All over the earth.
We call them skyscrapers.
Nimrod wanted his tower
With its top in the heavens,
He said let’s make a name for ourselves!
Our skyscrapers have names,
Some of them are Trump!
The good jobs are in them,
The ones we aspire to,
Bankers, lawyers, money moguls,
All hard to get hired to.
The higher up your office is,
The better the view,
All of your associates
Either envy or admire you.
Why, you tower above
The common folk
Who want to be where you are
But are too broke!
You walk all around
Through your hushed, plush lairs,
Riding around in elevators,
Too many stairs!
You never think, or just push aside,
What if the power goes out
And you are trapped inside,
A box in a shaft, hanging from a cable,
A hundred stories up,
Are you trusting in luck?
Yes, let’s build towers,
One is not enough!
Twins would be better,
We would be so blessed!
Fathers and mothers
Could engage in world trade there,
While their young children
Attend school and daycare!
That is if there are children,
They can be tough on careers.
So what has changed
In the years intervening,
From the tower of Babel
To the one in Pisa leaning?
The Arche de Triomphe,
The Empire State,
Sears, Chrysler, Flatiron,
Shanghai, Eiffel, Golden Gate?
That last one is a bridge
But still pretty great.
So what has changed?
Does God now approve
Of every building project
We choose to do?
And could those buildings
Be part of a trap,
Keeping children
From their parent’s lap?
While making it easier
To look down on people
From an exalted perch
Gazing out a big window
At flying birds?
What if the building is bombed?
What if a tsunami comes?
A huge earthquake ?
What escape route do you plan to take?
Can you fly like a bird?
Land safely in a tree?
If the building were on fire
Would you jump to be free?
God has not changed
Since the days of Babel,
But the towers have multiplied,
The children have scattered.
Are none of us concerned?
Have we not learned?
The sky belongs to God
And when we start scraping it,
We get burned.
