SUBMERGED

Walking the plank like zombies

Little lambs going to slaughter

Some are baring forgiveness cuts,

Stigmata,

A brand

Pastor's standing under a hood of angels

A wall of singing cherubs in a pool

Bread is lowered by the hand

Of The Almighty

Left-handed amputees

Forced to stand with their mouths wired shut

Only the pure can remove the cork,

Pour wine on the tongues of the willing

Thumbs press oil into furrowed brows

Brown,

Leather,

Parcel lips

Flapping with the flurry of silent hisses

Kisses to the temples

While they are lowered under,

We stare,

Fixated

As they march quietly into the sea

SILENCE

The fire burned upon the hill

The Tree of Life began to wilt

And all was hushed

And all was still...

And all the babes in quiet sleep

Laid down in caves counting sheep

And all the stars began to weep

And all the stars were one with me...

I'm lost in the atmosphere

Daydreaming that You were here

And all was found and all was clear

That I'm really just alone out here...

SAMSON

Samson,

Now that you are laid to rest

I still hold your hair in a mason jar

Wrapped with vines and baby's-breath

And I dream of you from afar

I never understood the true depth

Of the strength the Lord gave you

ISRAEL

This sacred ground is at the end

Where the rolling earth

Is forced to stand

Like a sacrificial pillar

Its head raised

Under the wordless chants

Of mourners left to repent

Between the bridge of two armies

Whetted and newly-forged

Like a skirmish of raised arrows

And sharpened spears

You are at the tip of that splintered wound

The Promised Land,

Sweet Israel

That has been cast into the wilderness

While the steadfast chariots

Plow under the luscious fig trees

And the forgotten wait for their Lord

To descend

To slowly hover

And scarcely touch the hollow ground

Where the roads were once paved

They are surely gone now

And doubt has been washed away

Yet the memory of the ones before

Is burnt into this foundation

Evermore