A Tale of Two Visions


Pat Robertson was visited by God
and this self-proclaimed prophet
foretells of a reign of chaos and destruction
and christens the politics of fear
as the new gospel: Fear conquers love.
How different his dream than Jacob's, for instance,
at the spot he came to call Bethel,
where a ziggurat reached to heaven
atop of which danced those messengers of God
in divine beatitude
commercing with the creatures of earth
and above them Yahweh, presiding;
here the exiled Jacob at war with brother and uncle
is promised a home ... a reprieve from terror ...
the old way of fear is transcended by the new
the way of promise, hope, prosperity, future,
and that which is the most solid symbol
of eternal life: children.
Again, the assertion, I am with you...
we are not alone (in this): the Christmas name
Emmanuel.