wake me
               shake me
out of this febrile trance
furtively pilfering my
heart's ancient treasure
once guarded
by comforting spirits
of warm hopes and
beliefs held beyond reason.

never questioned
by the minds tribunal--
the jurors seated
in the cranial court.
knowing eyes silenced
by misguided faith's rhetoric.

never minding
the persuasive muzzle.
often ignoring serpent's
retractable tongue.
always turning from
the dark corridors--
light banished
by modern-day pharisees

cloaked in mantles of treason
patronizingly diluting
what can only remain pure.
painted with pious platitudes.

away
         far away
i must sail from this folly--
an orphan of mystical doubt.
the frost and cold tempest I feel.

cautious sensibilities
a tenuous guide
through these gray
realms I traverse.
                      
trembling hands
grasp transient hopes
striving to shape
deeper meaning.

disciplining lazy
traditional beliefs
that hang on like
phosphorescent
spiders in the dusty
lofty
rafters of memory.

deceptive iconic silhouettes
faded       despiritualized
superimposed on a
human-made landscape--
a beautiful picture,
gold frame and all!

absence of religious
pop-culture faith
eclipses peace.
i shudder at the prospect
of this purge.
preparing for burial
what must die--
the end of an age
burned in effigy.

a raging wilderness
I now pass through.
i stumble by many
a familiar and
unfamiliar fane
longing to be clothed
with a mantle of peace.
                    
a vulnerable yet
strong spirit I guard.
let not trivialized faith be
my misleading guide.

and if it is all meaningless--
alas! it may be--
still I must forge
ahead to the sea--
ever mindful that rivers
never return to where
they have been
separated at birth.

i often hear roaring waves
crashing and gentler waves
lapping on shore--
but a body of water
is not always the Sea.