Raindrops

RAINDROPS

Can raindrops wash away the sin
   The tracks of places you have been
   The tears of people that you knew
   The trace of faces that were you?

Or does it just provide the background
   To your heart's repeating sound
   The beating drumbeat at your core
   Scarce remembered anymore?

The revelation of your pain
   Only recognized in rain
   Glimpsed in silhouetted haze
   On such drizzly, misty days...

Troy D. Smith, 1-11-2020

Mount Moriah

[Recent events have reminded me of a poem I wrote almost exactly thirty years ago...}
Note- Mount Moriah was the site where Abraham was told to sacrifice his son Isaac.


MOUNT MORIAH

Troy D. Smith
1989

The fog rolled in from the valley
   As I ascended the slate-grey crag
My firstborn lay on an altar
   Bedecked in a crimson flag.
For I had heeded the urgings
   Of the idols I adore
Who told me to send my firstborn
   To the bloodied temple of war
To be poured out, his blood a libation
   Upon a solemn, foreign shore.
The God of War has failed me
   His promises proven vain
And all the tears of forever
   Cannot wash away my pain
Now I stand upon Mount Moriah
   Like another father, in days gone by
But that one, I believe, worshipped
   A far better God than I.
For I fear I am no Abraham,
   And this is no Promised Land,
And War's faithless god sent no angel
   To stay the slayer's hand.