You say
"what's the point?"
but I sharpen my point
lead dust falling from my desk
all I can think is that
words
are just one letter away    from      swords
yet they fight very different battles
and make the point just the same
words
are just one letter away    from     swords
yet one outgrew the other in the time
and can't even come close to rhyme
words
are just one letter away    from      swords
sometimes it feels they can hurt just the same
and you think about the sword when words drive you insane
ones the weapon of the lover
the other of the fighter
both are history
both are novelties
severity of each can be overwhelming
each is feeling shelling
inventions equal only not in form
you wouldn't think
they'd be the same
but words
are just one letter away    from      swords

If the earth becomes paradise,
Of what use will heaven be to us,
And if the earth is a bad place,
Why then was it given to us?

If then i was created with a choice,
I can't remember choosing the earth.
Why will anyone ignore the beauty,
For a place where all efforts end in death?

If it was Adam's sin that brought pain,
Why wasn't i given the same opportunity?
He was born into a world of comfort,
I am born into a world engulfed in immorarity.

He didnt have to struggle with his flesh,
I struggle with my flesh daily.
If he wasn't forgiven and reinstated,
How then am i sure of mercy?

I have never seen the other planets,
I only know what the scientists say;
If truely there was some other place,
Humans would go there long before today;

If there is a place called hell,
Why aren't the "devils" already there?
What logic is there in keeping them with us?
Now they create burdens too hard to bear.

If we are allowed to make the earth paradise,
Of what use will heaven be to us?
If sin is the reason why we won't go to heaven,
What will it take God to free us of its curse?

If i didn't have a choice of where to be born,
I shouldn't choose where to spend eternity,
Being born with sin wasn't our choice to make,
Therefore it shouldn't be the problem of humanity.

The space and time between who I am and who I was
Isn't really real, says quantum theory
It's all happening at once
Just a cacophony of every everything that ever was
Exploding simultaneously into and out of existence, just
Bubbles squeezed into one another, growing larger with each input,
And our brains can only receive the signal of this three-dimensional, one-way version of things,
Can only translate it's movements into the illusion of straight time
Can only hopelessly trouble itself with relatively unimportant matters
Like the physical, emotional, ridiculous distance between myself
And you, my sweetest, loveliest darling,
Who are so perfect and so fluid
You might as well be the only matter
That ever mattered.

Except that maybe distance is what makes my heart yearn for you, maybe it's
Not some romantic magic formed in the dust of ancient stars,
Which whirled and grasped in the post-nova, until sinking this way and that, forming bonds and making plans,
Just like any other college graduate,
Never expecting to end up as part of a human being billions of years later.
But then, when do we ever live the life our educations prepared us for?
Hardly ever.
Right on down to the particulars.

staring outward like an empty house in the desert
the tail lights of your words have left me
the shadows of lonely porches

collected winters
too difficult to speak of
keep my heart in jars of sand