John Calvin & Justication by Faith

Revising the Future

Michael Minko, Jr.
ij
O
ur memory could have a past and lack only a future,
but we dont read what our forefathers wrote or read.
We select some gures, and then we t them to our culture
our fathers are what we make them once theyre dead.
But we dont read what our forefathers wrote or read,
because we dont want to know if we believe a lie.
Our fathers are what we make them once theyre dead,
and they make us in their image before we die.
Because we dont want to know if we believe a lie,
we design committees to transmit the truth,
and they make us in their image before we die;
we build them schools so they can also shape our youth.
We design committees to transmit the truth.
Tey are guiltless. Tey just believe what theyve read.
We build them schools so they can also shape our youth,
and children have no reason to oppose how theyre led.
Councel of Chalcedon Issue 1 2009 36
Tey are guiltless. Tey just believe what theyve read
our fabricated heroes always do what theyre told,
and children have no reason to oppose how theyre led;
consequences always follow the ideas we hold.
Our fabricated heroes always do what theyre told
we select some gures, and then we t them to our culture.
Consequences always follow the ideas we hold
Our memory could have a past and lack only a future.
Michael Minko, Jr. is a member of the Chalcedon Presbyterian Church
in Cumming, Ga. and teaches at Firm Foundations Christian School and
Chalk 2 Champions Home School Academy.
Revising the Future
Additional information:
This poem is a pantoum
From Wikipedia, the free ency-
clopedia:
Te pantoum is a rare form of
poetry similar to a villanelle.
It is composed of a series of
quatrains; the second and fourth
lines of each stanza are repeated as
the rst and third lines of the next.
Tis pattern continues for any
number of stanzas, except for the
nal stanza, which diers in the
repeating pattern.
Te rst and third lines of
the last stanza are the second and
fourth of the penultimate; the rst
line of the poem is the last line of
the nal stanza, and the third line
of the rst stanza is the second
of the nal. Ideally, the meaning
of lines shifts when they are re-
peated although the words remain
exactly the same: this can be done
by shifting punctuation, punning,
or simply recontextualizing.
Te pantoum is originally
Malaysian, but was adapted in
France. French and British writers
were particularly fond of the form
in the nineteenth century; Victor
Hugo is credited with introducing
it to European writers.
Victor Hugo