The Mislead Heart

By Mark Bishop

He loves the sound of despairing

of people not caring

while no one is daring to confront the truth

He loves the sound of babies crying

of the sick comforted by the dying

of mankind desperately trying to make it on their own

He is the voice that tells you to hide

to keep it inside

to listen instead to the thought in your head

subtly shaped by the pain and the shame and the blame

that you place on yourself for the things you've done

or haven't.

He holds you both ways but doesn't ask you to stay so much as bar the doors with the cords of your own heart

until leaving looks like death but staying steals the breath that brought you life at first.

So heed this warning

when you feel like warming your cold tired hands at the gates of hell

what your soul desires is not the heat of these fires
but the love from which He fell.