Lot, the son of Haran,
Nephew of Abraham,
Lived in one of five
“cities of the plain,”
On the south end
Of the Dead Sea.
The sinful and immoral
Sodom and Gomorrah.
Cities of wickedness
And depravity.
God warned Abraham,
Sodom and Gomorrah,
Was reputed for sin.
Abraham asked God:
“Will you sweep away
Righteous with the wicked?”
Abraham bargained
To spare the cities,
If ten righteous people
Could be found.
Outcry of its citizens
Became too great.
God sent the two angels
To destroy the two cities
In a divine retribution.
Before God had razed
Two sinful cities
The Angels met with Lot.
He made them a feast
Inside his house.
The men of the town
Surrounded Lot’s house,
Demanded he surrender
The visitors to the mob,
So, they might “know” them.
Lot offered to the crowd
His virgin daughters
“to do as [they] pleased,”
Instead. They refused,
Threatened worse to Lot.
The two angels then struck
Blindness on the crowd.
They advised Lot:
Flee to the hills.
Take your family from here.
Smoke from burning lands
Will go high into the sky.
God will rain sulfur and fire
On all the inhabitants
Of Sodom and Gomorrah,
All of the south Dead Sea.
Lot delayed, the angels took
He, his wife, and two daughters
Out of the burning cities.

Flee to the hills
And do not look back.

For the corruptions
Of Sodom and Gomorrah,
Lot’s wife betrayed
By her secret cravings
After being told

Do not look behind.

She turned about
To see the cities
For one last time.
Her punishment:
God turned her
To a pillar of salt.

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Stephen Barile is an award-winning poet from Fresno, California, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. He attended Fresno City College, Fresno Pacific University, and California State University, Fresno. His poems have been anthologized, and published in numerous journals, both print and on-line. He taught writing at Madera College, and CSU Fresno. (50 words)