Pamela Sumners
Modern Beatitudes
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For chances are, they’ll remain
Dispirited so long as Pharisees
Exist. And we know they subsist
On those little crumbs of doubt
You leave with them, always.
Their every prayer is a wailing
Wall, or a caterwaul of some sort
That might come Jericho-tumbling,
Without so much as a proverb
To tuckpoint it. Let us resume this
Lesson, let us part this mumbling sea.
For we are getting behind ourselves,
Aren’t we now, you and me?
Blessed are they who mourn, for
Their tear ducts work in wondrous ways
Their sorrows to perform. Blessed are
The meek, who will not attract enough
Attention ever to merit crucifixion.
Blessed are the merciful, for in those
Faces lurk Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate
Forever and ever Amen. And blessed
Are the clean of heart, because when they
See God, it might be better than the
Derisive vision He gave us, but bless
What they know is their righteous
Temperament, and bless their lush
Briefcases, and their emails and
The rote orderliness in all their
Ordinary, easy, nothingness unto
The Wilderness days, and may they
Offer up a song of praise to the days
They wander just for beggar’s wages.
May they dream of heavens like seas
That parted once, into a sounding roar
Their earbuds could not rightly hear.
May they become you, may they become me.
Pamela Sumners is a constitutional and civil rights lawyer. Her work has been published or recognized by over 20 journals and publishing houses in 2018. Her work has been selected for inclusion in Halcyone/Black Mountain Press volume, 64 Best Poets of 2018. She lives in St. Louis with her wife, son, and three rescue dogs.
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