BELIEVING

There is, I have read,
considerable evidence

that wondrous things come to people

who believe in God.

Their lives  longer than those of us

who believe in nothing.

The afflictions that visit us,

The diseases of our  world

Are less theirs.

Does this all mean

That we should believe?

But how can we?

When we do not know.

When I was little

at the catholic school

we were told that heaven comes on earth

if we did not sin. The nuns  believed.

They  also told us that hell would come on earth,

If we did sin. They knew.

I did not know sin then. To the nuns it meant

Lies, and bullying, and not going to church.

When we were older

We learned a saying

‘As you sow, so shall you reap.’

Which meant, I think, more than the

nuns said.

But we already know that we

Should not hurt, or lie,

Or do hurt unto, or state untruths,

That cause unhappiness.

We all know this

Whether God or no,

For we all  reap the sowing, and

we and the world come from it.

Then should we all believe,

Or try to believe?

No, say I. No.

For we cannot know.

Tho’ there comes those frightening times

When a crossing of hands, an appeal above

Soothes an unbelievable conflict.

Is it the nuns. Twenty  years later?

And that we do not have that comfort

That unbelievable solace

Of knowing security, our loves

Our lives, their beings,

Through the millennia.

After it is finished,

After they have gone,

Is it all  the end

without God.?