Bound to Love

This poem came to be as I was experimenting with the Petrarchan sonnet form:

Syrian migrants harshly turned away,

Kentucky clerk jailed for contempt of court,

Illegal immigrants urged to deport,

And workers can be fired for being gay.

The preachers gripe about moral decay,

While candidates denounce those who abort,

And ridicule the poor as if it’s sport,

And say, “If only kids in school could pray.”

Devout I used to be, a foolish youth,

A child of God with passionate belief.

But faith, the manufacturer of grief,

Compels disciples to meanness and hate.

So wiser now am I, and done with truth,

But bound to love, the highest human trait.