I dreamed I saw two family trees They grew from very different seeds One stood tall with flowered crowns And one was bent and bitter The bitter tree bore sour fruit That made the people eating do Wickedness upon the earth Until they grew to love it The flowered tree put out its leaves Which perfumed faintly that bitter breeze The bent tree's branches shook like snakes And did their best to kill it But up the sweetness rose again Like children rise from water cleansed and Though the thorns tore at their flesh They would not stop their singing Well ages came and ages went And it seemed the good tree's strength was spent While the bitter tree kept sprouting strong And choking out its fragrance Till one day evil's wicked limbs Entangled all the hopes of men And struck that holy heartwood down And felled the mighty timber The crooked fingers of that tree Took hold of earth and made it bleed And most forgot what goodness was Or where to go to find it And holiness decayed to dust The spinning world gave way to lust And justice cracked like splintered wood The world lay in confusion A tree is known by the fruit it bears And every day we plant ourselves In one of two families In one of these two family trees But no one saw the twist to come The prophets of the stump of God Were killed like fools and all ignored But underneath the soil A tender Word beneath the roots Uncurled until a little shoot Unfurled into the poisoned air To raise the ancient family To stir the dormant seed of faith And water withered hearts awake To die upon that bitter tree And uproot it forever And one day soon we'll see his face David's branch will clear away The stubble where the wicked grew And Jesus will make all things new