Tribulation Hymn

It was just like the lightning
That flashes East to West
Just like an oncoming storm
It was just like a coffin
The hollow in my chest
Just like the Bible
Just like I’d been warned

I was tending the garden
Pulling up the weeds
Trying to bear righteous fruit
But a man’s fertile soil
Where Satan sows his seed
He will plow up your garden
And plant a poison root

He came for my sister
She walked the narrow trail
She’d follow wherever he’d lead
But I took the highway
I faltered and I fell
He came for my sister
But he did not come for me

Now I kneel at the altar
A church of vacant pews
In the rafters a chorus of crows
They sing like a hymnal of rusted organ tunes
They sing like the broken heart of one who knows