The Offering

The room is full of empty chairs.
The gods above break down, distraught.
We offer them our thoughts and prayers.

Later that week, the Law declares
In bullet-points we’ve learned a lot.
The room is full of empty chairs

Persuaded by these solemn airs—
And those survivors? They are not.
We offer them our thoughts and prayers

While an explosive skeptic shares
Links proving this a deep state plot.
The room is full of empty chairs.

“We’ve still got time if someone cares
To leave us with a final thought . . .”
“We offer them our thoughts and prayers,”

Some suit recites as he prepares
To squeeze off one last parting shot.
The room is full of empty chairs.
We offer them our thoughts and prayers.

—Stephen Kampa

Photo by SBT4NOW via Creative Commons. Image cropped. 

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

The Fraying Fabric of the Church of England

Stephen Daisley

St. Paul’s Cathedral has come up with a novel way to fill the pews: It is becoming…

Talkin’ God and Football

Matthew Schmitz

Paul Finebaum is known as “the mouth of the South,” but he does a lot of listening.…

Letters—October 2026

I’m grateful for Stephan Pax Leonard’s essay on his conversion to Orthodoxy (“Why I Became Orthodox,” June/July…