Satan Is Wily

Satan is Wily

And can see the evil in my heart.

He waters it, and nurtures

It, so that it grows into

A bush of thorns, intending

To choke out the tender shoot

Of my faith -- but the LORD's

Work is never undone, and

The green slip is not choked,

But grows all the stronger, and

The thorns are undone,

And still God saves me

From Satan's death.

[Author's note: I wrote this originally in '91 or so, and I remember this was a time when I wrote most of my acrostic poems and difficult form poems like sestinas and sonnets.  Obviously, this was also during my era of Christianity.  What disturbs me about this one, however, is the fact that I clearly remember writing it as an acrostic, which it clearly is not.  This leads me to believe I had a clever design to encode a message in the poem, but for the life of me, I can neither remember nor decipher it. I vaguely recall playing with diagonal acrostics and word acrostics, and this may be one of them, but I have forgotten the key--I have, for the benefit of any cryptographers out there, rendered it exactly as it was originally written, unlike the others, which I have edited as I transcribed.  If you figure this one out, please e-mail me the answer, 'cuz I want to know!]