Cruel And Unusual Poem by Ted L Glines

Cruel and Unusual
by Ted L Glines

Is lethal injection
cruel and unusual?
Obviously painful,
therefore cruel,
but is it unusual?
No, lethal injection is
the usual death penalty
in some states.
The way that Jesus died
was cruel
but not unusual;
Romans did it all the time.
We like to view the Cross
as the choice of Jesus
to save us sinners,
but He was given no choice.
Our Cross is a Roman
symbol of life-death power;
arrogance in its darkest hour.
Even when they were pagans,
Romans had Catholic DNA
(miniscule time-warp there) .
What do we do with a man that kills
for anger or just for thrills,
how do we put his evil to rest
and avoid the cruelty test?
The man who injects the drug
or he who pulls the switch,
executioner,
is a murderer at best
paying a cost,
his soul is (maybe?) lost.
There abides a greater mandate;
(I believe it is greater)
Thou Shalt Not Kill
(murder if you like) .
How do we measure “unusual”
“cruel”
against that?


If I found a murderer, I would put him in the hands of the family of the person he had killed, and they could exact their chosen retribution on him. Yes, this is a tribal way of dealing with a murderer. Is murder a sin? I certainly would never encumber myself with the sin of murdering him, myself. Would you? Nor would I pay a public servant to be his executioner, for that would encumber me with the sin of demanding his murder (tax-paying does not let you avoid the sin) . Even an atheist must address his own self-blame for murdering... a murderer (Catch 22) .