In the Beginning

Bored with omnipotence,
tired of bickering with brothers,
the goddesses begged Mother
for meaningful diversion.
She labored seven years,
hunched over her loom,
spinning an idyllic world
for her daughters to nurture
where lions and lambs cavorted
in lush fields bursting
with fragrant rainbows
of bluebonnets, lavender, and daffodils.
Deep blue oceans
teemed with whale and dolphin
while majestic snow-capped peaks
pierced the skyline,
skirted by thick forests,
home to sweet song
of sparrow and oriole.
Into this tapestry
she spun her willing daughters
that their desire for purpose
might be granted:
Trust, Humility, Compassion, Peace
woven together into the fabric of eternity.

Mother’s sons, however,
consumed with jealousy,
sought to destroy her creation
but she had anticipated mayhem.
As rebellious sons sliced into fabric
with sharp anger of exclusion,
each strike pulled the sons –
Fear, Power, Greed, Violence –
deep into the tapestry,
saving it from attack
but smothering it in shadow.
Lion devoured lamb,
thorny bush overran fields,
lakes dried to dust,
oceans emptied,
mountains flattened,
song drowned by jackhammer.

Sister battled Brother within.
Where Trust united, Fear divided.
Humility served and Power enslaved.
Compassion shared and Greed hoarded.
While Peace restored, Violence destroyed.

Forgotten and ignored,
Mother laments her children
lost in the slowly unraveling tapestry.
Spun from strands of love,
only when sons and daughters
bind themselves into a whole
will creation regain its beauty.

©2018 Kenneth W. Arthur