Cartoon Fires

lets us have a cartoon about Abraham
lying to Egypt’s Pharaoh,
claiming Sara is not his wife,
so he, Pharaoh, will take her,
because him, Abraham, wants more food
from the Pharaoh.

lets have a cartoon about the Pope
controlling two puppets’ strings
one is a Jew being led to slaughter,
like a sheep, the other is a Muslim,
being led to slaughter,
like a raging bull.

a third cartoon might be in order
of Abraham, the father of monotheism,
tossing and turning in his grave, muttering,
“I only wanted them to become less violent.
In their quest for vengeance they were slaughtering
whole tribes of people. I wanted them to understand
and eye for an eye was vengeance enough.”
And Jesus answers from his grave,
“I told them to turn their other cheek, thinking:
who would slap a cheek that turns away?
But look at them now,
ready to set the earth, their paradise, on fire,
over a cartoon.”