Oh Great, Another Crusade

Alan Berecka

December 15, 2024

Christian Crusades never end well—

one ceased when Constantinople fell

but not before sparking a cataclysm 

between the three sons of Abraham

that oceans of blood have failed to quell.

And talk about too little too late,

before he died, Billy Graham (the Golden Gate 

Bridge between the pulpit and politics)

confessed he should have just nixed

any conjoining of church with state.

Soon an army of good books, by law, will invade 

our classrooms to save our young, but I’m afraid

all hell will let loose as soon as neighbors

who are true believers in different flavors 

of saviors decide whose bible makes the grade.

Alan Berecka resides with his wife Alice and an ornery rescue dog named Ophelia in Sinton, Texas  He retired in January from being a librarian at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi and is settling into a whole new level of contentment. His poetry has appeared in such places as the American Literary Review, Texas Review, and The San Antonio Express. He has authored three chapbooks, and six full collections, the latest of which is Atlas Sighs from Turning Plow Press, 2024. A Living is not a Life: A Working Title (Black Spruce Press, Brooklyn, 2021) was a finalist in the Hoffer Awards. From 2017 to 2019 he served as the first poet laureate of Corpus Christi