And God shut down the Garden of Eden and sent Adam and Eve out into the real world to work for their food. And he sent the Serpent to crawl upon the earth;  and it came to pass that the descendants of Adam and Eve all did not heed the lesson of their forebearers, and did wish that they might live in such a wonderful garden and not suffer, and the  descendants of the Serpent tried to tempt them by giving them free food and shelter. Yet these gifts were not enough: these gullible descendants of Adam and Eve cried out for more gifts and the descendents of the serpent who now had gained much experience in tempting the gullible, heard  their cry. 

       And there arose among those Serpents, one who had fooled the gullible descendants of Adam and Eve into electing him to the highest office in the land. and he said ' I will force these descendents of Adam and Eve to accept these free gifts;                  

        But among the descendants of Adam and Eve there were those who were wise and did see the Serpent's deception and did expose him: then, seeing  his power begin to slip away,  the Serpent proposed amnesty for those who had entered the land without permission:  and did say to himself, 'these fools will keep me in office and they will  bring more power to the Serpents'. And the wise also saw this deception and did provoke him;                             

    Whereupon the Serpent became desperate:  and  he proposed free education and free health care for all.  And he called upon the Serpents who sat in the highest court of the land to approve this proposal. Yet the wise were not fooled. They knew nothing was free -- as Adam and Eve had learned when they ate the forbidden fruit: that which the Serpent offers free always conceals a price.                                                                                                  

    Now those wise descendants of  Adam and Eve cried out for justice, urging their colleagues to remove the Serpent from his place. Yet, many among them were still fearful of the Serpent, because the Serpent was in them.  And the Serpent remained in place and continued his proposals to weaken the Constitution of the land, which was written by the wise descendants of Adam and Eve to limit the power of the Serpent. And the Serpent became more powerful in the land, while the descendants of Adam and Eve became more fearful.  And the Serpent rejoiced. Yet there arose among the wise descendants one who was witout fear and challenged the serpent to remove his mask. The Serpent's mission is always  to glorify himself - to become a god and  justify his evil in the name of good, but, ultimately, he fails.  Here is the serpent's dilemma:  He can never show his face as God, for God is all Good:  The Serpent can never be good, for that would undermine his evil, so he must conceal his face with the mask of good.  In God, there is no fear. God needs no mask: God is good.               

      The Serpent will always be with us, yet the power of God will always weaken him. 

Rest, little child,

In your mother's womb:

Unborn, yet waiting

For the surgeon's cold hand;

Your time is brief:

The blink of an eye

And you will be gone;

   You will not see the Sun,  

    Or the moon, or feel the breeze

Upon your face;

No hand will hold yours:

Now, you are gone;

Rest, little one,

From labors not begun -

Rest in God's hand.

                                                  J  L Foth, 2014

On this sacred land,

Washed clean by Freedom's hands:

Those who lived, fought and died here --

Their spirits remain;

Those who want us to forget

And sit upon their self-made throne  -  

They also are here.

Freedom's clean hand

Still holds Liberty's torch and she speaks:

Don't tread on me!                                                                                                                                            

"THE STATE"

They lived in the twenty-first century:

Their reward was great - they lived for the State;

None were great:

One for all, and all for none.

Gone were selfish men, they said;

Then one day, 

Unborn babies turned over and died --

(Or were they killed).

                                            J. L. Foth, 2014