IN THE GARDEN

There is a serpent by the garden
It hisses
And smiles
And pretends to befriend
Just like the one in Eden

And I see toxins
Dripping from his fangs
So I retreat to
Remote conversations
And sudden exits

You can't trust a serpent

Especially one
that has bitten you
multiple times before

JEPHTHAH'S TONGUE

She cried

Not with  friends
At her side

Not on a mountain
Where there is place to hide

Not for two months
But for years

She shed long tears

She cried

With no one,beside
And no one aside

And no one,inside

This void of feminine pride
That she can't hide

So she bewailed
Like one who failed

She cried

Over her maid
Over vows made

By tongues
Like Jephthah's

Copyright©2020 by Camille Caliscia Patrick

 

UNDER THE KNEE

We kneel to pray
But they kneel to prey

The law is under the knee

And, Christ
died
to fulfill the law

He died, to set us free

But love and hate
Are in the hearts
So man bows
in deep surrender

On knees that restrict
the breath of life
forever

On history that
don't act

So we kneel to pray
as they kneel to prey

And we kneel to pray
As they kneel to prey

Yes we kneel to pray

When they kneel to prey
And condemn

The untamed tongue
The infuriated eyes
The anguish cries

With upside down bibles
In photoshoots

And insane commands
To shoot

To control the youth
and years of ancestral struggles
In our veins

Because the Law
The law is under their knee

But God will raise up a Gideon
An unchecked uprising

As we kneel
to pray

Copyright©2020 by Camille Caliscia Patrick