in Sunday school
Mr. McKinney taught me
god punished Pharaoh
for refusing when
Moses pleaded
let my people go but

Exodus 9:12 insists it
was god himself who
hardened Pharaoh's heart
like erosion turns stone to rock

which strikes me as
rather petulant behavior
displayed invariably within
vindictive vicissitudes

but what else
would you expect from a
megalomaniacal misogynist
prayed to by bigots and
rapists and racists

**** Yahweh