In the land of never to be...

For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2 NKJV)


I did not die from a drive-by shot;

I did not die in a war of evil against good.

I did not die doing deeds whose saints

win rightful awe. I did not die

with faith in my fingers and thumbs.

I died daily from a raging word

that eats the brain like an unseen bug.

 

I flew in fantasy to unreal lands

where rancor falls from the sky

and cakes the sand; desolate and alone,

I faded to zero from fullness and ennui:

 

I learned to earn more of what

you should not spend or invest,

and I died bullied by abundance,

dependence without fill.

 

I knew no father with wise words

or soft embrace that shoos away

the monster in the dark. I contrived

the scary mask just to bribe the pang

that would not let me finally die.

 

I corrupted life with tender

borrowed from another’s purse.

I knew the animal fear, the death

grip on the throat, the throes that sculpt

the leer of deceit and absurd pride,

but I lost the dread that comes with conscience,

the brave naivete that does not fool itself;

 

so I did not love myself or my enemy,

or seek the ordeal where the just face

is born and good is pure and one.

 

On a day like any other, from the desert

of strip malls and pay as you go pie in the sky

a honeyed word began to sound.

 

Then the savior arose in the guise of a thief

and stripped me bare and robbed me blind.

And then I died to all that is and is not.

 

My audio recording of In the land of never to be... chirb.it/PDM7zs.

(c) copyright 2012 Charles David Miller. All rights reserved.