Beneath The Flood

If you stare too long at humanity

The Devil stares back

He dots the I, crosses the t, and is sometimes the why

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The people screaming for kindness and empathy

Don’t realize they’re already in the first circle of hell

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There’s a void at the heart of humanity

Good men and women have tried to fill it with love

But what good is a bucket against a raging flood

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Of avarice and spite, roiling waters

There is no calm, just the storm

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People who think so highly of God’s promises

Not to flood the Earth again

Lack imagination

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Ask the man with unwashed hair and cardboard Commandments

To enumerate all the ways of the apocalypse

Or just turn on your phone and read the headlines

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Right now, option 47

Is an old man who wants to bully God

Into opening the pearly gates and letting him renovate

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But I hear God doesn’t negotiate with terrorists

Even the ones dying in his name

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The snake gave up biting at our heels

Wrapped itself across our shoulders

The better to whisper in our ears

Weigh us down, stunting our growth

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Some would tell you “grab that snake!

Fling him to the Earth!

Proclaim your freedom!

Not today, Satan!”

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But it’s just you in the dirt

The dark whispers are from within

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So tell yourself “not today”

Grab a bucket, useless as it is

Try to fill that void

With just a little more hope

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Sinking to the bottom

You’ll lose sight of it

But it’s still there

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Beneath the flood, hope is still there