Thou Shalt do no Murder: Sixth Commandment

What to say about murder? The newspaper where I live, and the internet, tell of murders of various kinds. I am surprised that there are so many murders. It is frightening. This poem is part of the series on the Ten Commandments and says do not murder.

Sixth Command: Do no murder...

by Peter Menkin

Life, like a flame

gives light and burns:

a breath, the Holy Spirit,

gasped and known.

Honor and respect

this special gift, the Lord

says. Be a friend to life.

Blood may cry out, it does,

that murder, foul crime,

has ended life. We call

it awful, sin, evil. So many things

that tell us it is wrong.

For we think,

and know, not like brutes

but as mankind.

Let us cement our relationship

with the Lord, and say to ourselves,

each day: have I snuffed a life,

by giving pain, or stifled a flame?

For murder goes beyond the death;

death in many ways as in

spirit, or self.