I Have Given Evil A Name
This poem will remain in the archives as an original draft, but has since been scratched for a new poem called “Shema.” The middle section of this poem was by far the strongest. So I took it out and made it stand on its own.
I.
Seek and you will find - evil, if you’re looking for it.
Mephistopheles and all of his minions
hanging like Louis Vuitton from all of our shoulders,
in the congregation of the Charismatic church
where I grew up, where the pastor laid his hands on us
to cast the demons out. Spirits of
alcohol and depression and cigarettes, hallelujah
amen. Come Lord and heal your servant,
the one with the drinking problem, same person
every week, heal her O God we used to pray,
spiritual warriors at twelve years old, on our knees,
our heads bowed, eyes closed.
Our parents warned us on the way home,
how wrong decisions can lead to spiritual possession,
and we were sure, all of us, that our dark hearts
were already drowning in evil. Our parents
could sense it, Spirit of Rebellion they said, or something
like that, rock music that blared from our walkman,
Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan. And when we became older
and convinced of our sins, who could blame us
for giving evil a name? We saw the Angel of Death
crash into the towers of New York. Sodom.
Gomorrah. Osama Bin Laden.
II.
We’re not racists if you think about it.
Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists
are _____. The first to answer gets a cookie.
I had a friend from the Midwest who actually said that
via Facebook. Me in California, thinking that Jesus
probably looked Al-Qaeda, that we’d want
to hang him, all of us, because of his striking resemblance
to a towel head, a sand nigger, a Samaritan we were
sure that God didn’t love. Not as much as us,
praise Jesus, the god of the NRA, the heterosexuals.
Is this Baghdad or am I in NYC, read that too
in a status update. And then evil had a name,
Mephistopheles, Islam, cast it out in the name of our god,
who is a white European. Who would blame us,
we said, for overthrowing the government
like Jesus did? Just like Peter, when he cut the man’s ear off
and Jesus said rock n’ roll, my servant! and the Roman
empire fell, like Sodom, like Gomorrah;
and Christ, victorious, set up his kingdom in America.
What, you don’t remember this story? It’s right
there in the Bible, black and white.
III.
God who razed the Mosques, God who burned
the witches, inquisitive God of Spain, God
the Crusader, God the Jew hater, God the owner
of slaves, God the Warmonger, God
the Oppressor, God of our basketball or football
or baseball or hockey team, hear O America,
the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
