Earth Loved Ones Love You By Giving You Their Addictions
by Sabrina Dawkins
Your loved ones kill you
with birthday cakes
and greasy, tasty meals.
Your loved ones kill you
when they drop you off
at godless school systems.
Your loved ones kill you
with gifts: TVs and video games.
Your loved ones kill you
when they give you
a false church preacher
instead of a Bible to read.
Your loved ones are evil
but with good intentions.
Yet it all ends the same
without God’s wisdom and intervention:
Death.
Mothers raise their sons on fried chicken,
scrambled cheese eggs,
and breakfast sausage.
But X-ray vision
and God’s eyes see clogged arteries,
not from a mother’s smiling eyes
in the kitchen.
And only God’s eyes can see inside
the pastor who doesn’t believe in him,
or the teacher who teaches
only for a pension.
And now my loved ones
who showed me so much love
have abandoned me
for those TVs they bought me out of “love”
and the greasy restaurant food
they bought me out of “love,”
that even after I’ve driven
many miles to visit,
my loved one casually asks me
to move to the side:
I’m accidentally blocking the TV screen.
And when I cook for loved ones
to encourage healthy eating,
they quickly revert to eating out again.
And video games as a kid
they bought me out of “love,”
they now play on the smartphone
instead of talking to me
during visits home.
My loved ones have abandoned me
for things that are not God,
for the things and addictions they gave me
that I used to think meant
they loved me with all their heart.