Oh Lord, how black my night has come to this that I’ve been saved The lowest depth my soul to plumb my demons so depraved
All I knew is wiped away, a lifetime gone in smoke Acid dreams fill every night, in sweated fear awoke
Lost, oh lost, My dreams all lost, Oh rue that fateful day Oh, had I but turned ‘round to glance, and found sweet death to stay
Instead within this cave of pain, alive, I’m all to blame To look upon filth’ progeny and know from whence they came
Two sons from incest’s daughters, they grow within each womb Had I but known what we’d become, I’d rather known my tomb
For once I sat besides his chair an uncle straight and pure His eyes so clear, and in his voice I’d heard God’s righteous roar
Took me in, and fed my soul and put me on the path Too quickly did I part from him, my fortune found His wrath
The gold and silks and Sodom’s lure gave spawn to prideful lust For treasured place amongst the damned, their favor and their trust
I should have known the lowest job within His righteous camp Was higher than the King’s gold throne ablaze with evil’s stamp
Sweet baby’s sold into the trade or wed to darkness’ gore Swaying with the ecstasy of sadists’ rapture lore
They dared not give a stranger, a kindly place to sleep Rather rob him of his things and beat him in the street
For they would grab and rape his wife if she had caught their eye The weak and poor they had no place beneath Gomorrah’s sky
That all but wealth and rich had best to stay outside the walls The tortured cried to heaven, that Hashem might hear their calls
And here I chose to build my place, to dwell upon the edge And try to keep my soul alive and stay above the dredge
To walk with them in golden robes, and offer daughter’s hands, In marriages to their men that we might live within their lands
So vain to think that I could live and walk amongst the swine And not pick up the stench of sin, and loose this soul of mine
Yes, I of all, I should have known, my Uncle taught me well But blinded by ambitions greed, I rushed, my soul to sell
A wife I found within their ways, her wiles were my delight Her tender touch and softened words, a lust I could not fight
Each time I’d turn my face to east, she’d pull me back to bed To lose her and our favored life was all that I could dread
And then one day, I got their vote, and earned a favored place They made of me a judge and on their coins they stamped my face
I thought I’d made it to the top, and now could change their way I’d slowly bring them back to God; I thought I’d make them sway
And so that night, that fateful night when sitting by the wall Those pallid strangers came to me; I thought I heard their call
Come stay within my house I urged them, knowing all to well That in my friends and countrymen a hate would grow and swell
The masses came outside our door; our neighbors’ made a fuss “Where are these men you sought to shield?” You must give them to us
“Turn them out unto our hands; you know we hate the stranger” “Turn them out or face our wrath, your family’s in danger!”
I thought to offer up my girls, to mitigate their plan My daughters should have been my prize; they’d not been touched by man
Yet they would be my sacrifice so I could keep my pride And show the rabble I could be above the low and snide
Yes, I would rather loose my kin than show that I’d back down That I’d still be a wealthy man, and save my own renown
But lo - those Strangers, stranger still, than ever had a birth For these were angels of the lord to bring their death to earth
They struck the mob with blindness, and They turned them too and fro Then pointed to the mountains, and told us we must go
“Take not your wealth, just run yourselves, beware lest you look back! Salvation has been granted, though your virtue’s surely lack…..
For if you have regrets to leave, and thus have failed to learn And mourn the folks you leave behind, their fate is yours to earn!”
We ran that night; we ran so hard, the lightening crackled high And then the shaking earth foretold the city was to die
All we’d known, and all we had, would vanish in a flash Amidst the justice of the Lord, we heard the mighty crash
Oh wife, my wife, she’d had to leave her riches in her vault She dared to turn and look behind, and she was turned to salt
And when I gazed into her eyes, I knew that she was gone And all that we had known and loved, no more to build upon
We’d bought a life, our souls in debt, and now the bill came due And when I kissed her lifeless lips, I knew that it was through
Her once black eyes went white and glazed, her face reflective pale And now a statue made of salt, was frozen like the hail
Somehow we fled, I don’t know how, in horror and in grief All I had was stripped away as if by some great thief
I ran all night, and ne’er looked back, my daughters still in tow Until collapsing within this cave, our fate we could not know
Dear God, the added agony, I’d lied to both my girls I’d told – I thought - the end of flesh, was put upon the world
I’d lied that they would flee with me, before the city’s plight And so they sought to get me drunk and lay with me that night
The poor girls’ wretched misery, they’d thought we were the last They planned to keep our race alive through incest’s dark repast
And now to see they’re near crazed looks, when from the cave we crept And found the world of men survived, they tore their hair and wept
Oh keep me drunken, oblivion, my life, there is no life Had I’d but stayed and died that day along with friends and wife
Let all men read my epitaph, let all men come to quote That greed and lust and arrogance, had brought the end of Lot!
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