Depiction

May16th

1 Comment

Oh you persistent angle
You are no hellhound
You are horror in all white

Why insist there is light inside me
I am of the dark, I’ve come to accept – why not you ?

I cannot withstand a direct screening of your face
No capacity
I will shatter like a mirror
Like a glass

Church pews and hymnals
Were a cold hand pointing you out ( an upside down clarion call )
Lifesavers are the eucharist

The dumb down depictions cover the church walls
stealing your ability to be attractive

This nervous system is fragile
Vintage wiring lost all insulation
Living with a tooth freshly pulled

1 Comment

Comment by Sanlin — May 24, 2009 @ 4:55 am

Hmmm… This is one of those pieces that a bird has to read several times to start soaking it in. Vivid, unsettling language steeped in religious imagery. Not to play armchair psychologist, but… A crisis of faith triggered by traumatic or tragic life events, perhaps? Not finding comfort or answers in stained glass angels, wooden saviors and painted saints. Yearning for something more than tin gods and false prophets. Searching for salvation but harboring a secret dread that there’s nothing worth salvaging or no one to do the saving… Sometimes we’re willing to pardon others sooner than we will forgive ourselves. Are stains on our souls made that much more black if we’re confronted by what we deem to be unwarranted or unsubstantiated forgiveness, mercy or belief? Is it up to us to decide what is or isn’t ‘unpardonable,’ if there is no clearly demonstrable or immediately present ‘higher power’ to make such assignations directly? This poem conveys an air of sadness, guilt, heartbreak, pain and the frailty of the human condition within a context of spiritual incertitude. Or, that’s my take on it at 5 am, at least.

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