The Other Side

What if when you were a baby
You were born to the wrong side?
And you were taught the other story
The other people’s harmful lies?

But what if every time you questioned
They warned you get back into line?
Would you ever search for wisdom
Or accept that they were right?

Do you think you would be brave enough
To seek out what was true?
And how would you know to search for truth?

What if where you sought divine love
Was a book of empty sounds
That you were told had come from Heaven,
The words of God written down?

But what if when you tried to leave it You were faced on every side
With the threat of endless torture
And fear of being ostracized?

What if in the name of wisdom
You were taught all others blind,
And though you only saw their straw men,
You were certain of their lies?

What if violence filled your vision
For the sake of proving right
And in the name of God and nation
You had taken countless lives?

Do you think you could tell
All the men who made you who you are:
I’m trading honor for life?

What if all you knew from childhood
When you came at last to die
You discovered to be falsehood
That had scraped you dry?

And what if by those lies your heart turned
Into something like a hell
And as your eyes beheld the earth, one last time,
They detested every cell?

Would they welcome you in Heaven,
Would you care for it at all,
If you had all the while lived in hell?

But what if in the name of Jesus
You had stayed true to this life?
Do you think he would forgive you
For your ignorance and pride?

And what if when you finally met him
He was different than you thought
And the box they put around him
Made you hate what you saw?

What if God was not the person
That you always thought he was?
What if God looked like the other side?

And what if all the while the closest
You could ever be to God
Was to love a stranger’s soul?

Safety Net

The nurse removed me in a rush,
You feared I had already breathed my last
My face was tender to the touch
But aren’t we all that way as we come to life?

Could that which wrapped around my neck
And that which gave me life
Much more quickly be my death
The tool to save me on the desk
And it may hurt they say
But it’s worth it for a breath

As my skin turned blue
You didn’t know what to do
You feared my first day was my last
Do you remember now?

But that was 24 years ago
The memory don’t keep you up at night anymore,
You’ve watched your baby face the world,
But fear hasn’t gone, it just took a different form

It hurts me just as much as you
So as I try to breathe,
would you hold me close
Cause I can’t tell safety net from noose,
And when it’s hard to tell,
It’s hard to know where i can go

As my skin turns blue,
I don’t know what to do,
I need to find the truth,
but I don’t know how

So if I cut the cord
Would you hold me like you did?
If I couldn’t call him Lord,
Would you still love me now?

The nurse removed me in a rush,
You feared I had already breathed my last