2 Chronicles 29:5*

We’ve become more concerned
with the tattoos on the temple
than the people rotting under its beams,
who sit beneath a stained-glass microscope,
craving nature and quick-fix saviors,
prayers humming against the walls
in the absence of truth.

We sluice ourselves with greed
and strip the faith down to a code:
some words of hate and violent virtue
trimming the ancient slates,
pasted over the commands to love one another.

Only those who have gotten it all right
can read this new law.

And the rest sit in darkness,
having blinded themselves by too closely inspecting
the brightest redemption filth
we could speak into existence.