PRAY FOR VIOLENCE

The God of Abraham
enjoys His Master tricks.
Calls Chosen men to violent
revenge against all fancied slights.
“They’re wicked – Smite!
Pillage their villages.
Rape their disgusting whores.
Make their acres yours in My sight,
for My glory. Raise blood lust, My rightful
gory sacrifice. Pride is My reward
when your sons fight in My Name.
Pride can pay the price, replace shame.
I am no pansy, no prancing debutante
at Papa’s ball. I am no Mama’s man,
no Fate’s enthralled. I am the First, the
Prime, the All.”

SO YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVELATION?

Disappointed mystic exile John,
eager to besiege his jailors
rendering unto Caesar
tales of woe and destruction
of Biblical proportion:
“The burning bush told me. I swear it’s true.”
Beware the ides, the armies of Megiddo,
the smoke and mirrors,
the mushroom clouds
invading our memories.
“I send you these frantic missives,
Oh my Christian soldiers.
Do not stray from Yahweh.
Look what He has done to His
soul-begotten Son,
in a fit of divinity.”
I believe Jesus made it his mission,
gave every effort and sacrifice,
to save his mortal family
from mad jealous wrath of Dad.
His words clear, actions legend.
So sad that sheep easily forget,
falling under the evil eye
of any would-be butcher
slavering to grow strong on
the currency of blood.
There are beasts, and Beasts
numbering in legions.
Days end, begin, end again.
Murdering souls in the Name
of the Redeemer. Oh, the Rapture!
Any sane Judgment would leave us
drowning in bitter tears.
I am begging:
Open your eyes, minds, hearts.
Open and learn.
True revelation awaits in every leaf and vein,
in every newborn cry
revealing pain
is meant to be a message
of active compassion,
to nurture a future
kinder than the past.

IN CORPORATION

I am that I am.
You as my servant are charged
to make certain I never want nor
encounter less than the best,
nothing to sully my arrogant expectation.
And so for my children,
so long as they
do not question my authority.
Yes, snake, I hire for my utility
uncovering hidden resources,
slithering into the low places,
heralding my majesty,
hissing into obsequious ears
my requirements.
Never were you meant to
usurp your station, to
slither into my daughter’s dreams.
Rebellious children cannot
be countenanced.
Out I cast you, into the wilderness
stripped of your privileged ignorance.
Live or die on your own cunning.
I have no time for your precious pleas.
I have worlds to sculpt and fortunes
to arrange.
Out on the plains
multi-colored cotton candy spins
woven silk butterflies
dance on marionette strings.
Wondrous worlds appear
floating inside soap bubbles.
Heretic progeny, you forsake me,
creating a carnival of bliss
never anticipated in my prospectus.

JONAH’S ARK

Shallow lights barely blinking
Casting shadows without form
All this fighting’s got me thinking
’bout apocalyptic storms
Bible counsels we’re all dreaming
holding to a paradise
but all our petty wars and scheming
keep our pretty dreams on ice.
I met God on a soundset
Said “You’ve got some ‘splainin’, sir”
He just laughed, “oh, child, well met,
when making stew you have to stir.”

SACRIFARCE

What do we sacrifice?
Who do we put to the knife?
Ishmaels and Isaacs
innocent half-siblings
could be at puppy play,
achieve healthy bodies and confidence
in the rays of blessing.

What God is this?
What holy source of life
commands atrocity?
Oh, silly man.
Boys in battle,
regressed in tragedies
of childhood.
If the mentor class had flourished
we would be brothers building
cities of light,
gracious commerce,
glory of
love, honor, reason,
all the divine gifts
we profane,
we sacrifice
to a Lord of flies and
corpses.

THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION

I go forth
via technology
like a cyborg
like an astronaut
studying the far reaches of
metaphysical space.

There is no forbidding face to hold me
to expected form.

Back in the far reaches
of humankind
there was no need for the
binding of religion.
Small bands of kin with
common legends
knew what everybody knew.
It was not ’til population grew
beyond the constant face to face
that a binding form
need be evoked
of common ceremony, festivals,
deities, seeped in ritual,
the glue
of worldview.

Fast forward into the future.
Glue dissolves, as, like atoms, we find
invisible network
built on mysterious attraction.
Why die for the satisfaction
of angry gods
we no longer need?