Revelations

I dreamed a dream: 2004 was 1984
The president was a little boy with a brand new toy -- us. The Vice President was Moriarity lavishing favors on his corporate criminal cronies. The Secretary of Defense was Napoleon swatting mosquitoes with cannon balls, succeeding only in stirring up the swamp and spreading the infestation. The Attorney General was Joe McCarthy, protecting our civil liberties by taking them from us and locking them up someplace safe. The Supreme Court was the Pope, giving legitimacy to a President already duly elected by the people. The Congress was Marie Antoinette, contemptuous of common people while turning over the nation’s prosperity to America’s aristocracy.
And the Christian Church was Candide singing, “This is the best of all possible Presidents. It is the right thing to do to impoverish the country. Our children and grandchildren will thank us for frittering away their inheritance. Working long and hard to pay just the interest on this overwhelming debt will make them stronger, more industrious, and more appreciative of the little things in life.”
I knew this was a dream because the President is only elected for four years. If he were incompetent, the people would replace him at the end of his first term. How much harm could he do in such a short period of time? I knew this was a dream because the Vice President has no power. His only job is to replace the president if the president should die while in office. A Rasputin he might be, but certainly not Moriarity. I knew this was a dream because the Secretary of Defense serves at the pleasure of the president. Should he attempt to do such a rash and foolish thing, he would quickly be replaced with someone more competent. I knew this was a dream because the Attorney General’s job is to protect our civil liberties, not take them away from us. I knew this was a dream because the Supreme Court merely interprets the law according the Constitution. It would never interfere or even express an opinion during an election. I knew this was a dream because Congress passes laws for the benefit of all citizens, not just for a select few.
And the most powerful proof that I was dreaming was the suggestion that the Christian Church would become involved in deceiving people by claiming all is well if the powerless, the poor, the defenseless and especially tomorrow’s children were being impoverished spiritually, emotionally, or economically.

I woke up.

Apocalypse

The earth will bleed black blood. Scavengers will suck it up and spew it into the air. The sky will darken with it. Denizens of the earth will breathe ash and brimstone. Water will thicken and choke them. From the deep pools of the earth’s blood will spring forth a bush and a bramble. They will engulf a great nation, strangling it until they encounter a rock which will not be moved. The rock will become iron, and the bush and the bramble will crumble beneath it. The bramble and the bush will be forgotten and the sky will brighten, but the earth will strike back at its tormentors with ferocious fury.
The least among us, born of a volcano and said by his enemies not to have been born at all, will be lifted up by children, and even those who hate him will claim him by defacing his image to make him one of their own. Defilers will try to smear him with filth and he will be cleansed. Howlers will try to drown out his words, and he will be heard. Under his tutelage, the denizens of the earth will heal their wounds and will bind the earth’s wounds as best they can, but too little and too late.
Mother Earth will devour her children.

Hatred

Revelation has always troubled me. It seems to turn inspiration into desperation. The Christian Pagans find hope in its pages, but other Christians either ignore it or try to rationalize it. I cannot possibly compete with the powerful poetry, the strong emotional appeal, the imagery, and especially the deep-seated hatred of this apocalyptic work, but I have attempted to parody an update to it.
It is ironic that, in an attempt to turn our inspirational Holy Book into a legal document binding God, we have succeeded in creating a travesty: a book that begins with hope and ends in desperation, a book that begins with love and ends with hatred, a book that begins with a blessing and ends with a curse. It is ironic also that by encouraging readers of the Bible to interpret God's word literally, our religious leaders have turned into lawyers portraying Jesus, the son of God, as Jesus, the son of Satan. God help us.

Salvation

a garbage pail
black on a street of pastel
brimming with trash
and the leavings of trees
alone on a curb of shaven green grass

a sad lonely bucket
reminding the dusk
that others will come
clatter and clank
then silent and surly
sprouting like mushrooms
silhouettes in the night

just before dawn
clashing and clanging
first far away
grows louder
crescendo
descends into distance

silhouettes no longer
they’ve whisked out of sight
furtive
ashamed
exposed by the light

leaving the trash basket
unlidded and emptied
to again stand alone
and blemish perfection
inspiring this poem

meanwhile in Heaven a long way away
The One Who Creates
opens the gates
allowing to enter one single sinner
reminding the rest
that He is God
and they the blest

a choir somewhere singing lustful and loud
impresses that angelic crowd
with perfect precision and pitch
until one note falls flat
and God laughs

as the song goes on