Cold Dark Night... Poem by Eric Cockrell

is it easier to believe in God?
or to hold the hand of the old woman dying?
does freedom ever have a flag?
do the starving really care?
be love an orgasm and a ring?
or the broom that sweeps the floor?
whose footprints on the windows?
whose fingers walk across the floor?
why does truth smell like dumpsters?
is it a crime to forget?
is it easier to believe in God?
or to wipe the blood from the small child's face?

write me a letter, sing me a song...
tell me the wind brought us to your mind.
were we always really strangers?
who told lies beneath the bed....
the call to war, or the casualties?
names written in the tears of god....
is it too late to walk on water?
the crow's wings bent by snow.
once more for love,
or to hell with it all...
nothing else has any meaning.
old branches burn the best,
and the fire with intimate strangeness!

is it easier to believe in God?
or to walk beside her in the cold dark night?