HORNS
By Liz Moser
Is
evil real?
Does
Satan stand next to God,
pointed horns protruding
over thick and hairy eyebrows,
spearing bright balloons emblazoned
LOVE, FORGIVENESS, GRATITUDE
that float above our heads like haloes?
Does
Satan laugh when God looks sad
because the people He created
with his power-driven breath, his ruach,
seem to thrive in fetid darkness; does Satan chortle when
we prod, bash, bathe in the blood
of those who block our way to selfish pleasure?
Is
evil real?
or is
it void, absence of good— a sour vacuum
full of burst balloons;
within the emptiness we move,
deaf, blinkered, plodding,
pushing, grasping
for comfort and security.
Is
evil real?
Are
there those
whose only pleasure
is the anguish they create,
guided by a spirit force
that recognizes power
only when it subjugates?
I
prefer the theory of void,
want to believe
that evil happens by mistake
as we stumble godless in a breathless desert
unmindful of the fallen bodies
and the lives our feet have crushed,
but
sometimes
distorted faces,
veins pulsed in vengeance,
arms raised to strike and maim,
slander hurled generically
force me to see the horns.
