Jabez

There once was a guy
buried deep in the Chronicles
that only mattered to a bunch of
overpaid snake oil salesmen,
and he was only mentioned in
two lines and that was enough
for one guy to convince a bunch
of guano-minded pigeons to
deposit their hard-earned
sawbucks into the
immoral coffers, but
Mother Nature only
blessed them with
stupidity and
freedom of choice
and can't therefore
be blamed, like God
can't be blamed for
making the Job we
can't understand into
the Job we know and love.

Of course,
Jabez in Hebrew
means "he makes sorrowful"
and he probably lived a life
equitable to Job, but he
said a simple prayer and
all was forgiven and that's
why nobody cared about him
until he could be used to
further the prosperity of
the gospel, as if reprinting
the Bible year after year
didn't make enough money
for God anyway.

God has trouble
managing money
from what has been
demonstrated, therefore
he should pray to Jabez
because money management
is the boulder so big
and so heavy that even
he can't push it.

Reviews

[...]

. i don't know the specifics of the context ...
. but i know the sentiment ...
. and it's expressed powerfully ...

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

Fascinating and thought provoking piece Ken..........wonderful!

[Brad]

you are an epic writer, ken, brilliant writes man, with so much emotion and intellect

[...]

Pondering, intriguing piece. Much enjoyed reading this.

[Teri B]

I once knew a man in Jamaica named Jabez. And I wonder that your cynical soul doesn't see that no man speaks for God, but only for himself! The greed of men cannot so easily be transposed to God, nor their irresponsibility and inability to use their resources wisely.

An interesting poem!

[NightShade]

Your cynicism is much like the Spice Melange from Frank Herbert's Dune, in that I just gotta have it! The reference is obscure and hey, I would hope that the book they made would be but...

If Skeptic Magazine ever takes poetry, I think you would surely get first dibs on publication. I absolutely love this. Especially mention of Job that we can't understand (Pre-Biblical Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless) to the Job we all know and love (You know, with serious bullshit going on that we can relate to, even though the situations are rougher than most). A thinker for sure.