Gideon (A Poem For My Nation)
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Mark 3:25

So then God sent an angel and the angel sat under a tree
in the shade of a tree in Ophrah.
And there he found the man,
the man called by God
hiding, hiding, hiding
hiding in a winepress
hiding out of fear
of his enemies
Who would not relent,
not even for a moment
not even to let a man thresh his grain
in the hot afternoon sun
so Gideon was hiding, hiding, hiding
hiding in a winepress,
fearing for his life
beating out the wheat when the angel appeared
and the angel appeared to Gideon and said;
the angel said to Gideon
“Go, go, go
go and save your nation from the hand of Midian”
And Gideon asked the angel? “How might I save?”
How might I save my people?
I am the weakest man from the weakest clan
the weakest of my father’s house?”
And he was so afraid.
But the Lord said to Gideon
“courage, courage, courage”
courage for the fight.
For you shall not die”
And God gave Gideon
but three hundred men
to fight, and fight, and fight
to fight against the soldiers of Midian.
And Israel was so few
and Midian was so many
And when Gideon blew his horn,
When Gideon blew his horn
the nation of Midian turned against each other
they turned against each other
they turned against each other
they turned against each other
until they had defeated themselves
A nation rose up, up, up
A nation rose up in passion
A nation rose up in hatred
A nation rose up in bitterness
A nation rose up in division
A nation rose up and fought itself
and fought itself
and fought itself
until it died
died at its own hand.