I Don't Know Who To Pity Most

While working on putting together my collected poems, I found in my first chapbook (The Bewildered Gymnast) this poem that in many ways pleased me, and in many ways did not.  Then I figured out I could make it into a much better poem by stripping almost half of it away.  So here's the new version:

Hosea 1:2-9
Isaiah 20:2-4
Ezekiel 4:1-3.10-13

Those who loved Hosea most
begged him not to get married
to a prostitute, but he,
convinced by divine command,
ignored them.  His loved ones hurt
to see him court disaster.

Those who loved Isaiah most
were distressed beyond degree
That he thought God had told him
to run three years in the nude.
They tried to reason with him
as their hearts cried out in love.

Those who loved Ezekiel most
were crushed to find him cooking
his food on dung and playing
out fancies of destruction.
Love weeps, but how to reason
with demented religion?