Sentinel

Now I'm not Pavlov's dog

But you still rung my bell

I still drink from that bowl

And throw coins in that well

And it's good for us both that pain and trauma sell

They'll pave the road in gold

When you're on your way to hell

I guarantee I'll pray for you

And see they play My Way for you

There's nothing else to say to you

Until that very minute

You may redeem your life

But that'll be without me in it

So I guess we'll meet in Hell

Because I'll sin by not forgiving you

If God made you

Then who made me

What lesser cast

Gave me clay feet

Adam's mud

Vulcan's heat

What creature uses me to speak

These broken features it bequeathed

Hands that wring

Eyes that feast

On fruit that fell from better trees

To feed this heart till it's unseamed

There was bleach in my bottle

And bees in my rattle

But no one has hurt me

More than my friend Daniel

He seethes when I do things that he doesn't like

He leaves when he's scared of the songs that I write

I invented him

When I picked up the pen

So that he could defend

All the words of my life

Now he's dug a trench in the part of my mind

Where the sparkling serpent has buried his lies