Poem: The Gideon Bible In My Nightstand

"The Gideons! Just who in the f**k are The Gideons?!" - Bill Hicks

With great expectations
The Bible was placed,
Courtesy of The Gideon Society,
In this scarred nightstand
Fifteen years ago.

It tells you where to turn
If you're lonely, hungry, desperate, alone
Or if you want to walk to the window
And keep on walking.

It gives instruction to the infidel and the murderous,
But they never tell you what to do if things are copacetic,
Or if you think a bad day is far better than no day at all.

Frayed, tear-stained, underlined, and mostly forgotten,
But used beyond The Society's wildest dreams.

I did, it says in I Samuel, but taste a little honey,
And, lo, I must die.

It was left for me to get through a night like this,
And get through the night I did, in style, with the likes of
Jezebel, Mary Magdalene, Jonah in the belly of the beast,
Saul, Lazarus, Sodom and Gomorrah, Begetting, Smiting,
The Good Samaritan, Cain and Abel, The Prodigal Son,
The Cock Crowing Three Times, Judas, The Burning Bush,
The Fishes and the Loaves, The Burning Bush,
The Parting of the Waters, Jesus Walking on Water,
Noah and his menagerie, foot washing, Gethsemane,
King Herod, Caesar, King David and Goliath, and Samson,
With a dark and angry Yaweh smouldering in the background
And salvation as the overarching theme.
---o0o--