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| Marcus Aurelius |
Jesus was a Socialist.
Giving out free bread and wine?
And his “business” (Jay's Loaves and Fishes?)
never collecting a nickel or dime?
Had Jesus been an entrepreneur,
charging full freight for his services,
then, perhaps, the Sanhedrin and Romans
would not have gotten nearly as nervous.
Had Jesus been a go-along guy,
rendered Cæsar — completely! — his due,
then, perhaps, Pilate would have ignored
the unfortunate fact of his being . . . a Jew.
His coreligionists could have found common ground,
had he, instead of clearing the temple,
spread a peck of shekels around.
(And been a little less temperamental.)
Had Jesus struck a truce with Zeus —
that guy the Romans called Jupiter —
would history have taken a different course,
maybe have been a little less stupider?
Nah. Who am I kidding? What are the odds
that there could ever be peaceable gods?
Gods we created in our own image,
who therefore exculpate our violentest scrimmages
with winners and losers, with vics and perps.
Exacerbate everything. Give 'em the works!
Slings! Arrows! Outrageous fortune!
Ain't no such a thing as out-of-proportion.
We are who we are. We get what we get.
I find it astounding we ain't over. (Yet.)