A Sparrow Alone

Found Poem from The Book of Psalms

We spend our years as a tale that is told.
I have considered the days of old,
the years of ancient times.
We see not our signs.

My days are consumed like smoke.
I am weary with my groaning.
For I have eaten ashes like bread,
and mingled my drink with weeping.
I watch, and am as a sparrow
alone upon the house top.
I have seen the wicked in great power,
and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
He sits in the lurking places of the villages:
his eyes are privily set against the poor.
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud:
under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
The wicked walk on every side,
when the vilest men are exalted.
If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do?

I was dumb with silence.
My heart was hot within me,
while I was musing the fire burned.
Deep calls unto deep.
Hear this, all ye 
inhabitants of the world:
Mercy and truth are met together;
righteousness and peace
have kissed each other.
They go from strength to strength.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

This poem is part of my latest collection Death at the Mall (Kelsay Books)