Apocolyptica

Free verse for Good Friday

Pride goes before, pride goes
Before, and this is a proud people 
Who go before 
The face of a jealous God. 
So a pale horse goes riding

Can you see the wreck and not be offended? 
There could be no other end than this
Wreck? Rather
This is the way, the way
It has been all along

 My Way is not your way or ways, nor are my paths your paths.  

When all that has been whispered in the dark
Is shouted from the rooftops ‘gainst the dawn
When lies are held to light, when bare and stark 
The truth goes, thin and weightless, mercy gone

Do not rage, do not weep
Do not mourn the sudden fall
The beautiful lie
The pale horse standing 
Against the empty sky. 

This is what the proud people 
What they wanted all along
What they were, and all along:

Have you your wages? 
Have you received your due? 
Mine eyes have seen 
The recompense 
Only with thine eyes. 

Are you prepared to have the wage you cried against Me for? 

Pale horse, and its rider, 
Finding the people. Their form and their pattern. 
Here is the heart of man
Carved from their chests, the pale stone. 
Flesh calcified. 

You have asked for no god, you yourselves 
And here you are. 

Can you see the wreck for what it is? 
Can you see the love that sends the pale horse riding? 
Can you see beyond to what will be? 
Can you love the sword that comes dividing? 

Forgive me, O forgive
Thy justice sickens me 
Ought I rejoice at blood
Blood sprung from these pale stones?

Was it my silence, that now the rocks must cry? 
The very rocks must cry.
And whether I will or nil, no silence
No silence, and my will is nil
In this. Against Yours, nothing
Against You, nothing. 

Forgive them, Father? 
They know not what they ask
They knew not what they asked
They ask for what they know
They asked. 

Fallen, fallen is Babylon
Fallen, the hearts of men.
Fallen, the thousand 
Fallen, ten thousand 

And has it not come near me? 
With my eyes I have looked, and

I have seen the sun come up again. 
I have seen the horse, the pale horse riding. 
I have seen the stony hearts of men 
I have seen the sword that comes dividing. 

Tell me, shall a faultfinder contend with God the Lord?

Signs in sun and moon and stars 
On earth the nations in distress 
What is coming on the world? 
The wilful met with righteousness 

And when, 
And when these things begin 
To take place 
To come upon the world 
The recompense 
— the redemption — 

O Father, straighten me. 

The knee bends. The knee bends, before. 
There is a humble people 
Who bend the knee before 
A jealous God 
So a bright horse comes riding. 

Til the day breaks 
And the shadows flee away 
Many waters shall not quench love. 
Jealousy as cruel as the grave
Saves from it. 
The love stronger than death 
Must bring it. 

Have You Your wages? 
Have You received Your due? 
Make me see 
The recompense 
Only with Thine eyes.