Sentinels

So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, "O wicked ones, you shall surely die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.
Now you, mortal, say to the house of Israel, Thus you have said: "Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?" Say to them, As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel? 

- Ezekiel 33:7-11

They came to us like sirens across the frothing ocean
we thought it was the sound of death, we thought it trouble
but it was all our own trouble bouncing back at us off sea cliffs
across waves and through wind and by wires

At first we ignored it like your own child’s whine
but it kept coming with force and insistence and pressure
until the point came where we saw it clear as a neon sign:
this is the right turn, the chance, the change required

There were beheadings and melting bergs and street riots
A man set himself on fire as he prayed for infinite peace
Bees dropped from their hives leaving food crops unfertile
Bruised women no longer hid their wounds behind doors or veils

The pain of the universe will keep pulsing the sentinels strong
Some folks will intercept and decipher and ponder and act
some will dismiss them like a run in with a rambling man
who says these are the words of the divine we were waiting for