New Hell

How much more righteous I would be

Coming on black-tipped wings

With eyes that shine with mourning

With sword red-tipped with wrath

How much more horrifying the gulf

Abaddon, Tartarus

The pit that lies before you

Those who stir the name of God against them

Who keep that name in blackened hearts

Charred igneous rocks embedded in their chests

Hard in head and empty in spirit

Crying out such ululation

Singing Hosanna

Let us hurt them

Let us cast them out

Let us make of them examples of our cruelty

Let us blot the eyes of the hidden God

The voice we've never heard

The bosom from which we flee

The sea of red words never understood

And look upon the immigrant with scorn

And look upon the poor with contempt

And look upon the different with hatred

And burn what words might set us free

How much more fury in these bones?

Made flesh by sacred star dust flung

Wrathful as I hold this scroll aloft

And pray they take the bitter pill

Lest the trumpet sound

The wine press be readied

How much more waiting can be done

Before the darkness is eternal?

Setting such lamentations out like a feast

For the unfeeling hearts of those beguiled

To worship the feats of this our beast

As Babylon struts out in style

How much more anger would be incurred?

If only His wrath were tangible

Even the faithless cry out now

Even the godless would see this end

And now like Enoch I see the dark

The fallen, rattling their chains

They made this prison their reward

For humanity they've dug a grave

Gilded and bejeweled it shines

And stretches down into the dirt

Filling with their final words

Overflowing with lessons never learned

For this hole is the New Earth

This moment is the last

For how could I wait much longer

To give to you what you have asked?

Singing Hosanna

Let us enrich only ourselves

Let us detain, degrade, destroy the other

Let us create New Hell

Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma: https://www.pexels.com/photo/melted-tv-cause-on-merapi-eruption-12636164/