Guile
So harmless in my childhood years
A game that was pretend
Acting out a different life
my summers I would spend
Superman or Phantom mask
and strength to lift with ease
Flying to the latest crime
the bad guy I would seize
Sometimes I was a bug so small
so tiny and obscure
Crawling unobserved by all
of this I was so sure
It’s easy now that I’m a man
this game to play again
Acting out another’s part
is now a game of men
When I’m scared I act real tough
and when I cry I say…
“A speck of dust is in my eye
to make it tear this way.”
What’s scary is the one who’s fooled
is me behind the mask
Everyone else is well aware
if ever one would ask
Pretending as a child is fun
and brings a harmless smile
Pretending as a man is wrong
that’s why they call it guile
David Kettler
March 15th 2011
I got the idea for this poem from the second chapter of First Peter…”Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile…” It seems like a theme through much of Jesus ministry was his distaste of guile or phoniness. Anyway, thinking about it resulted in this poem!
So harmless in my childhood years
A game that was pretend
Acting out a different life
my summers I would spend
Superman or Phantom mask
and strength to lift with ease
Flying to the latest crime
the bad guy I would seize
Sometimes I was a bug so small
so tiny and obscure
Crawling unobserved by all
of this I was so sure
It’s easy now that I’m a man
this game to play again
Acting out another’s part
is now a game of men
When I’m scared I act real tough
and when I cry I say…
“A speck of dust is in my eye
to make it tear this way.”
What’s scary is the one who’s fooled
is me behind the mask
Everyone else is well aware
if ever one would ask
Pretending as a child is fun
and brings a harmless smile
Pretending as a man is wrong
that’s why they call it guile
David Kettler
March 15th 2011
I got the idea for this poem from the second chapter of First Peter…”Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile…” It seems like a theme through much of Jesus ministry was his distaste of guile or phoniness. Anyway, thinking about it resulted in this poem!