parousia (the second coming)

there are no shades of grey
colors only heighten loss
their vibrancy mocking us
black and white govern here
in the promised country

sunrises and sunsets
hold no philosophies
they are the abacus of lives
counting down the days
of our leasehold

the air drones with myriad sounds
all the same- we are one voice
our temples bursting on the sabbath
pharmacies the rest of days

there is wealth and poverty
but gold has no power
it can only delay not banish
our common inheritance

we do not boast of achieving entrance
and would gladly trade away
the ultimate knowledge
for one extra day of warmth and
laughter , wrapped in the living color of
the world outside the gates here
in the promised country.

BIO:
Joseph A Farina is a retired lawyer in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Several of his poems have been published in Quills Canadian Poetry Magazine, Ascent ,Subterranean Blue and in The Tower Poetry Magazine, Inscribed, The Windsor Review, Boxcar Poetry Revue , and appears in the anthology Sweet Lemons: Writings with a Sicilian Accent , and in the anthology Witness from Serengeti Press. He has had poems published in the U.S. magazines Mobius, Pyramid Arts, Arabesques, Fiele-Festa, Philedelphia Poets and Memoir (and) as well as in Silver Birch Press “Me, at Seventeen” Series. He has had two books of poetry published— The Cancer Chronicles and The Ghosts of Water Street .