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Finding Shelter During End Times

Finding Shelter During End Times (1)

Do you think you’d feel pride as the last soul alive
on a planet that dies as your knife pricks its heart
(not alone you’ve had help, the last lemming, perhaps,
to run off a tall cliff as our race ends in fear)?
Would you find satisfaction, some joy in this fact?
Or more haunted (in fall) think, “should I have done more
to preserve life on Earth, save the future; if love-
child, a stranger, or pet, groked my death saved their life
might my rhyme be worth more? Life’s a joke that so dies?

Now orange skies (2) overhead feel like ‘sign’ (what surprise!):
‘fire’ we’ve brought on ourselves? The Earth’s wife
(moon), sun’s warmth, trumped by smoke day and night! Our fate dove-
tails, life fades with more fluorescent skies? Does rain pour
from ash clouds of burnt forests; greed frame man’s last act,
(a poor play on life’s stage?) Is wealth all I hold dear?
That could be, for I (fall on own sword?) fuel a lapse
of loved things I thought birthright! Does orange hint the cart
pulls the horse, make a horse that I’ve shot twice revive?

As God’s Grace gets revealed in ALL MERCY that’s shown,
so is Satan inside us expressed when we thwart
or suppress what is treasured by others (made wrong!)
and demand that ‘All’ honor what we call God’s light.
Let all ‘private acts’ flourish (and God be their judge)
that don’t limit my truth, for no soul is divine!
Let the laws that we pass serve the freedom of all,
not the wisdom of fools who ‘prove’ worth to false Gods
when best actions we own are just slime trails of snails!

There’s no sacrifice owed when you fall off the rails
in this life. Christ’s blood covers it all, and the odds
that you’re loved are beyond comprehension (not small)!
You’ve a place at Groom’s table, refreshment, best wine!
He has witnessed all sin but does not hold a grudge
(if you want to be there). He’s aware of our plight;
in His Love (though we may not sleep well), we are strong
if we’re on our last legs. Love’s real worth’s a learned art,
not words mouthed or gold stars! Or do rote facts atone?


Brian Johnston
14th of September in 2020
Poet’s Notes:
(1) It is incredible to me that there is so little appreciation, I think,
for the concept of ‘End Times’ or its value, and some seem to feel
this is a uniquely aberrant Christian idea. Indeed, we are all
aware of our oncoming mortality (one kind of ‘end times’). Noah’s
flood was another (though it leaves begging the question of what
happened to all that water, why freshwater fish did not get collected 
(but the mosquito did)! Why was the ark necessary at all? Did Noah
have access to tens of thousands of land species that all lived on
different continents – poor kangaroo)? I guess God built their ark!

But ‘End Times’ may not be a laughing matter! We are all riding
the Spaceship Earth and until (and unless) other worlds become
accessible to us, it seems prudent to attempt to think at least
about how we can be better stewards of what we have! Let us
hope we fare better than the dinosaurs who once ruled our world,
the planet where we are now Kings.

(2) Some CA residents recently woke up to an orange-colored sky
caused by a massive number of forest fires now plaguing our 
state that may well be the result of ‘Global Warming.’ The orange
glow did not result from a reflected fire’s proximity (the fires were
quite distant), but a color change (much like the rainbow’s) due,
I think, to refracted light! The result felt quite ominous!

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