"Victory is mine!"
boasts the executioner,
holy writ in hand:
"Now I chop off your head!"

"No, victory is mine,"
snarls the victim,
holy writ in hand:
"You'll burn forever in the fires of hell!"

"Victory,"
says God,
with undertones of irony and amusement,
"is not for the one who conquers,
but the one who loves.
The only and final victory
is reconciliation.
Neither of you win,
until, in me,
you embrace."

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.