The Abyss

The cynic asks, where is God?
Or they reform the question as,
where can God be found?

The Christian answers simply,
in every man, in every place
in every place there is a man

But the cynic answers,
how do you know?
Because the Bible
tells you so.

The Christian bites his tongue,
not so much from being tongue-tied,
but, more or less, because he's waiting
for the cynic to finish his forthcoming tirade.

The cynic states bluntly,
there is no God in the world
because off the suffering
in the world caused by both
nature and man, nature with
her earthquakes, hurricanes and
tornadoes and man with his war,
pestilence and famine.

The Christian pondered
for a moment and took
a page from Jesus's
playbook, a play typically
used called the parable

The Christian says simply,
I took a trip to the abyss
fifty feet below the ground,
the type of place where men
and women were bored out of
their gourds, where their
television reception was snowy,
and where they imprisoned
themselves for the sake of
their countrymen

This is the place where the
men and women would enter
codes and turn keys that
would launch the weapons that
would make the red horse of
the apocalypse blush a certain
hue of deeper scarlet

The man leading me on this
abysmal tour was one of those
men who was trained to act on
a moment's notice if the call ever
came from the leader of the
free world, and he told me
he could barely sleep when
he had to sleep and could
barely stay awake when
he had to stay awake

The cynic rolled his eyes, but
the Christian continued undeterred.

The man, alone at his console
between the hours of midnight
and six in the morning, read a
book that kept him going for
his solitary alert time, and
that book was the Bible.

They cynic already knew
the answer because he
was a Christian once,
and he knew how the
Christian apologist
operates, and so he
scoffed once more.

The Christian went on,
this man hated what he
had to do because the
blood would run deep
scarlet forever and ever
and he could barely imagine
turning the key if the
call ever came down,
but the Word of God
egged him on into
perseverance.

So, one night in the
dead of the North Dakota
winter, the man crawled on
top of the air conditioning
unit in the launch control
center and wrote the words
to the third chapter and
sixteenth verse of
John's Gospel.

And every time afterward, he was
to sleep when he had to sleep and
stay awake when had to stay awake.

All hope was no longer
abandoned as he worked
every subsequent alert.

The Christian finishes,
but the cynic is unfazed,
so the Christian shrugs
his shoulders and
wanders away.

All the Christian could hope for was
that the cynic would realize God was
and would be found in his heart.

In every man, in every place.

Author's Note

I was inspired to write because I found John 3:16 written on a wall in a missile alert facility. A missile alert facility is a place where nuclear missile were launched from. The men and women who did this job routinely went through a lot of stress during their time down below the Earth. If the call came down, they would likely buried alive. The poem is the culmination of all the thought that came from what I saw on the wall.

Reviews

[Desert Dreamer]

A thought provoking work....I wonder how a person who believes in god could work at a nuclear missile facility...hmmm, but I also wonder how anyone with a conscious could work at a place that causes destruction. I don't think I could sleep at night knowing I played a part...maybe that is why those words were written on the wall.

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

I am deeply touched by this piece. John 3:16 is the only bible verse that was ever taught to me by my parents.. You have transported us into the world of these people who have possession of keys that could change everything, into the possibility of their most inner thoughts.......A tremendous piece!

[Judy Ponceby]

Wow. This was very intense. I have no experience with any of this. But the meaning in finding those words written in that place bears much pondering as you have done here. A story well told, Kenneth.

[Coyote Poetry]

Sometime hard to know and feel God in a world gone mad. Faith is hard to hold on to. I receive hope from seeing good people helping their neighbors and doing good deeds. We hear of the bad people only. Never of the woman or man who worked and donate at shelters. Thank you for the poem. You open the door to many questions that must be answers with living and trying to be kind. A outstanding poem.
Coyote

[joshua deathdealer]

wow A very powerful and awesome write Kenneth. I can't tell you enough how much I like this poem. Awesome work.

[Rene Velez]

Boy O' boy, the light creeps everywhere, and yes also in the heart of man, I couldn't imagine being the one to turn the key. the burden alone is to much to bare...In that situation I would probably walk away and get shot in the back as a deserter. I would have scribed every word of the bible on every wall until there wasn't a free space left...