lazarus

it isn’t until power

is challenged by nature
that justice begins to
break through

walls and guns don’t
stop a virus
and breathing treatments don’t
bow to male authority 
private prisons can’t
contain death
and rebel flags are unfit to
stain doorways with lambs’ blood

privilege does not prevent pestilence
whiteness does not rescue from wilderness 

and i would not go so far to say
that god sends horsemen
to collect the rich and arrogant
but there is a parable
about a man in purgatory
and a man in paradise

one ignored the other’s sores
both died
one healed
the other tortured 

and i would not go so far to say
that god tortures the merciless
but i would still be careful
in putting stock in conspiracies
in stockpiling necessities
and in mocking disabilities
because nature and death
don’t discriminate
but i can’t be so sure about heaven