"white and smooth"

she was made to be filled
purposed and designed
named with destiny
“pale and smooth”
a vessel to house treasure and holy things
an alabaster jar

but an insidious insinuation was introduced

whispering disparagement and lechery
"not a holy vessel--a dumpster"
renamed and repurposed for this reality

so she was filled
with a vile stench; putrid fumes.
with an acrid taste; rancid spirits.

with a grievous sensation; despoiled

with a heart like a house of horror;

its walls crawling with mold,

dripping with cigarette tar,

and riddled with carved words

what of those words spoken so long ago?

and the knock she was afraid to answer...

too ashamed to open that long shadowed door
"No, it's ME! Your FATHER! Open up!"

but she'd known two fathers before
one was named Abandonment...
and the other Abuse...
what manner of man meant to greet her now?

still yet, she suffocated and suffered
until her tongue atrophied and her spirit asphyxiated
"Help me!" she choked. "HELP ME."
And HE came and carried her out of shame.
"Come to My house, I will build you a new home."

That place burned to the ground that day,
to soot on her eyelashes
and cinders in a colorless mound
"What is your name?" she asked in wonder.
"Amends."
"It's a pleasure to make Your acquaintance, Amends."

"The Pool of Babylon"

authored by my brother

Lost in the Pool of Babylon, 

filled with defiled bodies dead and alive.

Black skies, dark cries, light hurts your eyes,

struggling for oxygen on top with everyone else, 

dive down and you'll die.

Touch them and you'll be marked by plague.

There are only walls, there is no way out.

Don't listen to the floaters,

the environment isn't polluting the water,

THEY ARE

They're running out of room on the surface.

They're running out of food on the surface.

Eating fetuses is the only way to solve their problems.

Don't settle for oil slicked vomit and excrement, 

clinging to cold bodies to stay afloat.

Listen closely to instruction:

there is clean water to be found, water rich with oxygen,

you just have to go deep.

"Avoid the alluring bodies, 

you'll end up a corpse.

Avoid the alluring bodies, 

you'll lose your ears and voice."

Dive deep and be filled with peace, 

in the quiet find relief.

Let the deep current sweep you to the real surface.

The Pool of Babylon is but a cave...