A Poem by Morgan Gascho
Written January 11, 2022
In Machado, Brasil
Bitterness is a nasty disease
Alternating joy to false connected gossip,
Baking fear to the smell of weeks’ old ripened fruit, fallen in the heat
Using grace as an excuse instead of a gift, to box in love, which like a rose, has no choice by to die without oxygen
Bitterness is a nasty disease
Bitterness is a nasty disease
Aiming to cover the heart like a wrapped, bleeding wound
A million-dollar wound giving the gift of new eyes to the precious value of life
The heart, wrapped so tightly to not let the blood seep out, allowed no time for breathing
With no oxygen allowed, the heart dies like the rose, no chance of air
A festering infection grows, smelling rotten like the trees bearing fruit in all seasons,
Having been pruned far too less for their own good
What could have been fruitful is now smelling evil, wanted not even on the outskirts of the city, let alone in paradise
The tree, once wanted, becomes a tree untamed, because the fruit remains hostile to the Gardener’s Hedge of protection, which sometimes comes in the form of a knife.
The knife cuts down to the bone and marrow, beyond the bark, beneath the skin, below the history of the rings showing years of experience
This is where bitterness grows.
Under the bark
Beneath the stem
Below the skin
Beyond the biochemistry of the fruit
Bitterness is a nasty disease.
Gardener’s know.
Pruning can solve everything.
Cutting back for a season,
A winter, taking away the shallow, the weak, leaving the stem, strong, to grow in the wind and to possibly be blown back and forth
Back and forth
Back and forth
The rhythm of growth
Trial and tribulation
North and south winds combined
To facilitate divine growth of mature life
Allowing for strength to be made known to the Maker and to that which was made
The pruning, done for the better good, not for the latter good, but for the best
Cuts through the disease of bitterness, allowing for trees that grow side by side with deep roots, living by the streams, planting seeds, just like oaks of righteousness, fortifying cities and making pathways, producing fruit in every season
Bitterness is an ugly disease,
And pruning can make all the difference.
In His Presence 