yahweh or the highway in poetry

As a popular culture
we reserve vastly more pity
forgiveness for the misdeeds
flaws and complexities
of fictional characters
than we do real people.
Serial killers can be dreamy
some kid caught with weed
can be locked up for years
they throw away the key.
All I can say is
it’s pretty fucked up how its
Yahweh or the highway.

Empathy for the suffering of others
is the path to ethical living,
not the fear of reprisal from invisible monsters,
not leaving it to old fairy tales
to do all of the forgiving.
All I can say is
it’s pretty fucked up how its
Yahweh or the highway.

“God only gives us what we can handle”
is the weirdest most-roundabout
victim shaming we’ve got as a culture.
Terrible things happen to good people
good things happen to terrible people
I mean… Donald Trump, right?
either God is an asshole or
we’re not in God’s sight
either missing or never there
sometimes we survive just by a hair
not because divinity knew what we could handle
but by burning both ends of our short life’s candle
and what doesn’t kill us
leave scars that will continue to ache
limps that will always stay
brother, this is pretty much all I can say
it’s pretty fucked up how its
Yahweh or the highway.