Turn Back, O Child
by Br. David Kaczmarek, TOR


Touch a hot pan,
get burned;
give someone a hot pan
to touch—
and it’s evil.
And that’s how evil works,
dressing up as ‘not-evil’
or being dressed up
as ‘less-evil’.
But evil doesn’t like
being less than it is.
So dress it up
and it tears away the pretty things
to show its awesome lack—
or call it by a nice name
and it utters back itself, ten-fold.
There is no deafness to evil’s shouts,
no putting-off its black appointment.
For it thrives on doubts
about its very self
and embraces all
it claims to help.
Best leave it to die,
of loneliness unfelt.






© 2006, Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance, Immaculate Conception Province.
All Rights Reserved.