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The Dragon's Mouth · Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: This poem is based on Revelation chapter 12,
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: verse 15,
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: which reads,
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: away with a flood.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's after a poem by Malcolm Gite titled, What If, and is entitled, The Dragon's Mouth.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: From the dragon's mouth,
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: words pour out as a river,
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: where truth seems to shout the shameful curses and accusations of scorching,
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: scornful condemnations,
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: the accuser's raging imprecations to drown and make you his prize.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: In desperate deceit, we lie.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: We make excuses for self-preservation's sake.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: We deflect,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: dismissing with simplifications to manipulate another's expectations,
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: managing with half-truths our own reputation,
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: denying there could be any association between our acts and the father of lies.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: And in these moments when we double-speak,
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Fearing the loss of the fame we seek and terrified of their implications,
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: we deny every little insinuation that could possibly merit an accusation.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: We call down curses and condemnations that we have any association with this teacher condemned to die.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: It is there and then, at dawn's first light, when the rooster's cry breaks the silence of night.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: We remember our confident exaggeration,
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: defiant against his prognostication that we could be tempted to prevarication or
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: withhold obedient offered oblation,
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: deny our love,
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: our chosen vocation merely to protect our own reputation.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: and we see through the other's knowing eyes.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Swept away,
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: a horrified,
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: humiliated heap,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: tears pour and flood with words we weep for the hasty vows we swore in the
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: commotion of the sting of exposure and anger at the notion that one could be guilty
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: of such insincere devotion.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: drowning in shame and regret and resentful emotions.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: No more words, no excuses, no alibis.