I dreamt of a home with a wife and a cot
I knew of no host with strife and a lot
I longed for a house with a love and a knot
I knew of no hole with a life and a clot
I got me a knot and some kids and a home
I forgot how it was to live life on my own
I got me a house and a job and a loan
I forgot how it was to love life on its own
I got me a strife and a lot with a host
I forgot all the love that I'd yearned for the most
I got me a life with a tribe and a post
I forgot all the dreams of a troop with a roast
I feared for the loss of my love and my hearth
I forgot my own need of my home for my heart
I desired a peace for my house and my cart
I forgot my own piece in the hole of my part
I prayed for a dove for my life to give hand
I forgot my own spirit and its love of the land
I pled for a cease to the strife that was planned
I forgot how to breathe or to sit in the sand
I lost me my knot and my home and my kids
I forgot how to bleed and to open my lids
I cost me my wife and my church and my dids
I forgot how to beat and to bleat and make bids
I yearned for a friend or a knife or a shot
I forgot to break bread or sow seed in a pot
I longed for an end or the end of my blot
I forgot how to see or to think on the spot
I fell for a drink at the hole where I dropped
I forgot the real pub with a life and a plot
I felt for my blood that was cold and had stopped
I forgot the slow death was worse than my lot
I fell for a lust with a smile and some eyes
I forgot that a woman is bound to tell lies
I felt for her kids and their hugs and her sighs
I forgot my own self and the one who is wise
I bended my knee as they slurped me all up
I forgot they would swallow or spit out their sup
I failed to fear like a whimpering pup
I forgot that the idol will master its cup
I chocked as they chewed and spat me out hot
I splat in the mud and my blood formed a clot
I lay in a still and on that day that I stopped
I forgot that the earth felt my tears as they dropped
I dug a deep hole for my life now unseamed
I forgot that my whole was asleep and unseen
I buried my soul that was dead in its dream
I forgot what the hold Christ had me would mean
I woke from my grave with a gasp of fresh air
I let go my idol who had taken my care
I grasped for my Lord in whom I had shared
I rose my new self who was bought at great fare
***
Idol a tree whose fruit I share
That’s good and evil at once compare
Its food I eat for life we pair
Yet prey I be of serpent’s lair
The good we take we evil make
It’s right misused and good abused
Partake we wise a juice that dies
In knowing good we taste of lies
Idol a tree that’s fair and rare
You stare to taste, you take the ware
You join the lair, you start to care
Idolatry, your luring mare
Special thanks to Gregory K. Beale for "We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry". Visit gkbeale.com.
