"Twas lovely . . .
To behold
it's colors
soft and seductive
in violet and purple.

And at first
I thought
it was a flower.
Yet one day my wife
came and told
me of a weed
that was going
to kill our shrub.

"What weed, what shrub?"
asked I in ignorance.

The one at our front door
and then I knew
what I thought
was a flower
lovely to behold,
was in fact
a seductive weed
which was slowly
surely choking
this beautiful shrub
at our front door.

Now this shrub
had taken years
to grow and blossom
to prune and nourish.

So I set about
to extract this weed
but beneath it's flowers
I found briars and thorns,
for this was choke weed.

So then I cut it
at it's stem and root
and with gloves
slowly, surely, painfully
extracted it fully
from off the shrub.

But in a day or two
I learned yet it lived
and returned again
to attach itself
to my shrub
to slowly choke
it's life away.

A neighbor saw
and offered council
with this kind he said
you need to use poison
on the flower
to kill the root.

So I placed the poison
in the flower's bloom
and still it fought
but then it died,
but each year
it returns in different
locations to seduce
and lead astray.

It is the same
with Satan's temptations
they seduce with beauty
and strike with venom
within the walls
of our homes.
if we but let him in
in gilded clothes
and polished boots.

But instead we need
to know the good
from the evil
is not by looks
but the feeling felt
in our daily prayers
to touch and feel
from the Master's hand. . ."