New poem by TCBH resident poet Gary Lindorff -- 'Evil'

Dad, you believed in evil

To your dying day.

You weren’t a Christian

But it was just your way

Of forgiving human beings for

All the sadistic

Barbaric

Blood-thirsty things they have done almost non-stop

Throughout the histories of so-called civilization.

To you, there just had to be

Something evil out there

That infects the souls

And the good intentions of people,

Then you could forgive

Your own humanity.

You and I. . .

We went on for hours about this

Over the years.

I argued that if you believe in an ultimate good,

Then you are stuck with its opposite.

If you have God,

Then you have the devil to deal with

And there are a lot of Christians out there.

I often suspected you should

Really be having it out with a priest!

But you didn’t believe in an ultimate good,

Much less a personification of good,

Just in an ultimate evil.

Eventually you did grant

The possibility of a universal spirit of life,

But only as a concession.

It sounded too philosophical to me,

Too intellectual.

But evil, and specifically the evil

That possessed certain members of the human race

Stalked you.

Evil bruised your ability to believe

In any other super-human power!...

For the rest of this new poem by ThisCantBeHappening! poet-in-residence GARY LINDORFF, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/2852