WAILS OF THE WRAECCA.

PART VII: SOMETHING'S NOT RIGHT IF SOMETHING'S NOT WRONG

You can't withdraw and pine--

You're no longer a child

And haven't been for longer than

You've known you haven't been...

*

It's cold beyond the pale--

My breath froze

Into demon shapes

Flipping birds at me--

*

What prompts

What calamitous leveling

That's punishment or penance

according to your lights?

I cannot recall

Though some moments

Whisper alternatives

As I search through

Wreckage for clues

*

And here is another

Invitation to pull pins

Out of your voodoo doll

And stick them into the carcass

On the crucifix

God forgives--

But only if you do

And with your

Misconceived notions

How can you?

*

Lord! Help me remove the bitterness

From my heart!

"I will not!

You have bitterness in your heart!"

*

Why shouldn't gratitude be bitter?

Isn't righteousness too often the helping hand

that adds to the burden?

*

God's Will be done--

What "free" choice have we really?

*

I was finally broken--

I'd prayed like never before in my life

And still did evil triumph and horror crumble

All delusion--

As if God put my smashed pieces under heel

And ground them further--

The aftermath chafes in the blistering heat

Of afternoon--with mouth closed--

And a fading of pain as relief--the cure

As bad as the complaint--

For Life's sake I'll have to lose god

To find God

*

Have patience with the afflicted--

You are among them

*

Pity us purists--

At best we're laughingstocks

At worst fall guys

*

Dry heart--

Definitive as a fossil

It gives the exact condition

When doom overtook

The fresh fragile beating

And rendered its being

Complete

[End of PART VII.]

Content (c) 2008-2010 Philip Milito.