Proof of Life

· 2 min read

I have been experimenting with an idea that’s starting to pay off.

Here’s the gist:

Here’s an example:

Verse 1
I will kneel in the dust
At the foot of the cross,
Where mercy paid for me.
Where the wrath I deserved,
It is gone, it has passed.
Your blood has hidden me.

Chorus
Mercy, mercy
As endless as the sea.
I'll sing Your hallelujah
For all eternity.

Then flip it:

Verse 1
You will rise in the clouds,
from the summit of the crown,
where vengeance extorted me.
Where the grace I was owed,
it arrived, it endures.
My breath has exposed you.

Chorus
Vengeance, vengeance,
as shallow as the drought.
I will choke your anathema
for a single instant.

You do have to take some poetic license with the inversions since some nouns resist direct opposites. But wrestling with the inverse forces you to look at sacred imagery inside out and the counter-imagery it dredges up is wild.

I have a neighbor one street over that passes out Jack Chick tracts at Halloween. Last year I traded kids on my doorstep 2 Ring Pops for 1 tract and ended with a handful. This is what I’m working through now, selectively inverting themes. I’ve got:

  • Demons grieving
  • A bored angel at a gate.
  • A faceless God on the throne who is terrified of what he's about to do

Is it a book? Probably not. I think the novelty wears thin after a handful and besides I have some other things I’m working on, such as this poem I wrote while browsing the BBB Scamtracker (this post specifically)


Myawaddy

EM starts the job.

She finishes the first set early.

$66.10 appears in her account.

There are two women in the chat,
if they are women,
if there are two of them,
imagining money together
until one asks the other
to make it real.

I’m not giving you money to work.

The job ends
as easily as it began.

EM closes WhatsApp.
She opens it again.

I do need the money I just earned.

Can I withdraw it?