The Gospel of YHWH

[Ylanne Abdul Saleeb]

I.

Fog blows away across the empty sea
Lonely, from a distance, striking at me
Dark clouds high in the tattered, shattered sky
As fragile and dainty as windblown glass
Falling to a death on the ground below
A starless sky in the empty night void

Winds blowing unchecked across the Great Plains
Massive sky stretching across forever
Hiding within a broken heart, dead soul
A whisper of love, a vestige of youth
A droplet of water falls from the sky

The rain is salty, mingled with her tears
The silence of darkness thunders, booming
Leaving behind only an empty mind
Life fading away, becoming as dust
Fog blows away across the empty sea

Unclaimed and forgotten trophies are dust
And the victor already vanquished cries
The helm of night pressing on his shoulders
Staring blankly at a plain whitewashed wall
Shuddering to face up to empty fears


II.

The scent of roses lingers on the air
As two lovers in a garden caress
Alone with only their sad thoughts to hear
Red blossomed fiery across his chest
And dying love's fragrance evanesces

Rose petals are scattered among the dust
And they followed a trail of their own tears
Snow has fallen and ice sheltered their fears
A silver sprig of mistletoe shivers
A bonfire crackles, simmering cold

Cried the Moor "Mohammed!"; Crusader, "Christ!"
Promised by caliphs, popes eternal grace
Felled in battle by the sword, the rifle
Massacred millions in the name of God
Dust littered the space between the stars

Heavy rainclouds emptied the angel's tears
Thunder echoes Yeshua's dying cry
Remembered but in an instant forgot
A fell tree blocks the path to the mountain
And each leaf flutters limply in the wind
Fog blows away across the empty sea


III.

Fills the space between stark black and white lines
The rain falls unhurried through the night sky
Mud spatters fallen lonely rose petals
Suffocated, trampled in the dry dust
The tears of God made the oceans salty

By day gas killed them, by night they burned graves
Acrid smoke blotted the sun, skies, stars
The fires, ovens, forever burning
Perpetually scorched and fear driven
The day God averted His holy eyes

Fire and rain poured down from heaven high
The abandoned bride's cries echoed all night
And the oppressed were stifled in their fear
War is a state of pure insanity
Neither understood, loved, nor truly feared

The earth, it was drowned in God's salty tears
And again when two towers mighty fell
Paramount of triumph, collapsed to dust
They swore it was the end of all they knew
Both caught in intimate relationship
Frozen in time, hands in the cookie jar
Fog blows away across the empty sea


IV.

The stars they fell from the sky one by one
Glittering and glimmering in the night
One stood silhouetted against God's light
Struck down, beaten, cast out to die his death
The desert's hallowed halls, they stand empty

The sky broke into a million pieces
The ground trembled, and the mountains fell down
The ocean roared, belched a forty foot wave
God blinked and millions perished before me
Fog blows away across the empty sea


The aureate orb burns, cold and distant
Tongues babble without stopping to listen
Lightning struck heretic and priest alike
Mercy and justice once again denied
Two travelers departed from the inn
In the land of true justice and freedom

Ethereal voices sing in lament
Some pray to St. Mary, some to Allah
Save us, deliver us, make my soul pure
The victors, they wear laurel wreaths with pride
Picking and choosing amongst the colors
God mourns the fall of man and cries 'til morn


V.

Waving a banner of red, white, and blue
They cry to God, and storm enemy lines
Through frigid waters of the Delaware
Paving the way to what we know today
America is the land of the blind

Rain poured, soaking the nooses on their necks
As they pleaded "Mother, Father, oh God!"
Strike them down in the name of tyranny!
Snake and rabbit alike fell to abyss
Wailing for what had already been lost

The thorns pierced his brow and the spear his side
They trembled with fear as he cried and died
Now his death remembered and forgotten
Sealed in a tomb; at the right hand of God
Now defaced with graffiti on a wall

Sworn to save life, he prepares a needle
Walks up to the condemned, composed and grim
Plunges the injection beneath his skin
Piercing the final shroud of protection
The dissenter never goes unpunished
Fog blows away across the empty sea


VI.

Sipping his tea and polishing his sword
The samurai warrior says "Courage!"
O hapless foe, I have defeated thee
You are dead and already forgotten
He kills for Buddha, but Buddha preached peace

The two of them stand before the altar
To be joined in holy matrimony
The ghosts of those people who live but once
And those who die a million times over
Their vows have already crumbled to dust

Some people, they would die but to be free
Not knowing I saw them and they saw me
Not knowing they cannot own liberty
The wind blows across the plains forever
Echoing the strains of God's unheard pleas
Pleas for life we refused to listen to

It was a passion once again instilled
It burned with fire and swept the nations
Angels and demons were caught in fury
And only the eyes of God could see them
And He wept for the lost ways of the world
Fog blows away across the empty sea


VII.

They swore they knew the melody that they sang
But time elapsed, and they collapsed to death
And the things that they built fell to ruin
Ages and ages hence, again today
The ancient globe turns round on its axis

Towers that challenge the height of the sky
Choirs sing "Hallelu Ya, by and by"
The sequoia stands a thousand feet tall
And water cycles forever on end
Condensing into soft mist on my face

Burdens laden heavy on her shoulders
Always moving, with each staggering step
The whip of the Oppressor lashes harsh
Leaving scars, burns, and pain across her back
Her cry resonates across space and time

Children turned away when they came to play
Colored, untouchable, Jesus said "Come!"
The woman lying injured in the street
Was beggar, prostitute, daughter, body
God watched it happen and He cried rivers
Fog blows away across the empty sea


VIII.

A child stood upon the rocks smiling
Arms wide, unaware of war around him
Then five shots rang out in quick succession
And amidst the fire of explosions
Like a deflating balloon, he fell limp

Two long lost lovers share parting embrace
Both prepared to die, but met by surprise
Two people were added to death that day
And despair, devastation engulfed them
As the world's eyes were watching, riveted

Napoleon, Caesar, thought they'd live fore'er
But both of them died in a single day
Thousand year empires gone in twenty years
They thought they were creating new culture
Instead, they lost all that they ever had

Afraid to speak up, afraid to change ways
Afraid to face what they themselves had wrought
Lost in themselves, in their false ideals
No longer did their shadowed eyes watch God
The monument of peace, burned to ashes

They were shunned from society, from life
Yet Jesus took the time to sit with them
They call themselves right, but Jesus was left!
And they imagine they can see the sky
And another bomb exploded today

Where two paths diverged in a yellow wood
He was silent and lonely; there, God stood
Through a maelstrom of sexual desire
The last embers in my fire burned out
As everything collapsed into darkness

A fly dropped into my coffee today
About the same time my inkwell dried up
A tired, well-used Bible sits close by
Smoke from my candle joins the haze outside
I close my eyes and drift into deep sleep

As across the world, wars are raging fierce
Not bodies, but people, souls, memories
Slaves labor away, and murderers stay
As the world turns white and red with fire
Escaped from the crucible: hate, fear

God's in His heaven, looking upon us
He is weary, lonely; His eyes are wet
His love ignored, declined, and forgotten
Though He sent His only Son begotten
The murdered pray for their murderer's souls
Fog blows away across the empty sea