i keep hearing

people talk of stumbling in
     to armageddon
like it’s some predetermined stop over
along a coastal highway to salvation
even if it brings a billion deaths
and the sinners’ minds and hearts
are pitched upon a mountain
     grotesque
like a pile of shoes in the holocaust museum
     yet there will be those that say
     we deserve it

but the abyss might be a state of mind
     you need not be swallowed in
bury your swords and draw your blood
     for a line in this desert
     a blockade of yucca plants
     will grow and circle our tents

--- e b bortz

(published in The New People, March 2003)
(published in ArtCrimes #21, July 2006)
(published in opednews.com, April 19, 2013)