Earth Water Wind and Fire

Flames flare all around us

Inferno heat intense

Prepare now for the battle

Take up the defense

Defense becomes offensive

Friend becomes enemy

Fire works destruction

Breaking unity

Floods flash from above us

The tempest rushes on

Grasping at the flotsam

Terra firma gone

Each man looks out for himself

Room enough for one

Solitary castaway

When the storm is done

Foundations fall beneath us

Earthquake nothing stands

Houses built upon the rock

Houses built on sand

We cannot run for shelter

We just run away

All the bonds are breaking

This is judgment day

Fury forces down the walls

For protection built

Scatters the protected

Jetsam in the silt

Caught up in the whirlwind

Blinded by debris

Fragment batters fragment

Eyes no longer see

It is the test it’s judgment day

I seem to always fail

In earthquake storm and fire

Faith and courage quail

Failure needs forgiveness

Free and unearned grace

Favor without merit

To hold the parts in place

Wholeness or destruction

Crises are at hand

We will fall if torn apart

Together we may stand

Wedges only separate

What will admit the wedge

We can only stand at all

Together on the ledge

Earth water wind and fire

Destroyers seem to be

But the essence of existence

In some philosophy

Let not the elements destroy

That which they compose

What creates life causes death

In solitude disposed

©Stan Sanford 

January 30, 2001