Sunday morning sadists
sing discordant of their greatest sin
a stinging ricochet meets copper
in leather-bound summation of insidious domain
stifling sun of sordid swelter
writhing in self-flagellation
rising welts on skin born sacred
words belie the skies afire
irony left to the gallows
sworn in blood wine
bread of flesh
and symbolic disparity
all the passion reappears
when draped in ire
trapped in painted windows
tainted scenes of glass stained tragic
framed above the haloed heathens
listless martyr ever-looming
unrelenting sting of stigma
fingers crossed in accusation
pointing toward our innate state
of human beings being human
and then to see such opulence
flaunted about so garishly
attached to hands soliciting alms
from desperate indigents in worship
shameful exploitation stretching far beyond reproach
as the spoils of their devout extortion
are soon transposed to golden thread
to sew the splitting seams of pockets brimful
dismal are the dreams fixated on barren subsistence
what is reaped are mindsets of maniacal indoctrination
self-fulfilled by fearful deluge
ethical paralysis of covert imparting
compromising our capacity to comprehend
the consequences of our actions
framing death as moral answer
sacrifice of so called “soul”
a sentence served of self-inflicting
orchestrated by a savior
intrinsically born of usurping
based on baneful male womb-envy
guiding men with egos fragile
terminally compensating
gravely vying for control
through brazen claims of self-appointing
pathological presumption
placating their perceived lacking
tactless hordes of form barbaric
storm the streets to spread their poison
pious perpetrators of a violence unprecedented
viciously conniving for a self-sought absolution
through the veil of our avowal
of their never-ending avarice
they gaily flaunt before our faces
wonted are we to submit
and worse
to serve as known accomplice
Sunday morning moral comeuppance
plundering our forlorn plight
frightful death and heaven’s scorn
adorn the good book’s turning pages
if there still remained even a shred
of our humanity
it would be the first thing
we would burn
[image credit: Frank C. Pape]
Max, or Not 