Blasphemy

Blasphemy
(With apologies to John Lennon)

I wonder how it would be on this planetary clod
If primeval man had reached for his brother, instead of God?

What if the very first ever seeker to understand
Discovered “look for forgiveness not from above
But in the soul of your fellow man”?

What if the very first priest of the very first clan
Thought it is not God, but our brother we must seek to understand?

Did we miss a turn?

Should someone once have said
“This is where we start
A journey not to heaven, but our neighbor’s heart”

What if the holiest lines ever penned
Were not God’s immutable demands
But how to hold a stranger’s hand?

What if we all were told that how to pray
Is speak your hurts and needs and hidden fears
Not to God’s but your neighbor’s ears?

How would it be to communicate with open heart at length
And find it was not God’s, but our brother’s forgiveness that gave us strength?

How if we needed love and hope and there was no alternate source
Save the hearts and minds of humanity, and no outside force

And say if there was no journey ending below or beyond the skies
Then heaven would be seeing love for us in a stranger’s eyes

Abolish all churches, abolish all mosques, abolish temples where they stand
Burn the Bible, Torah, Vedas burn the Quran
So that all we have left is each other, to love and understand