a confessional screen
chambered in opaques
the pearly gates would sport
checkers sovereignty with grime
between myself
and the other side of this poem
another acolyte had founted
from our species-widened narthex-maw
the answer to the test
the answer i have tested since
despite the veto of a roshi's sleeve
while adults justify in frowns and threats
commandment-etched
i am a child still
aghast at drawing lines in sand to mark the living
from the soon to die
one i knew who drew such lines
for whom a line was drawn to mark himself as well
not just in votes and homeland hate-speech
you see
he crossed the line
no unadulterated childhood can cross
he shot his own face
or at least his face was shot
when he was found
who can read the final lonely moments of another
when mistakes are easier than ownmost acts ?
bombing bullies politicking death
can sanctify the safe
unpunctuated traps
dividing moods in swallows
pills
swilled with undigested fear
of nozzled death
mercilessly sudden
.
narthex:
1. A portico or lobby of an early Christian or Byzantine church or basilica, originally separated from the nave by a railing or screen. 2. An entrance hall leading to the nave of a church.
roshi:
The spiritual leader of a group of Zen Buddhists.
working notes:
a tone in flux, a new eureka spoken for an ancient crowd
a guru's overbearing beneficence
the roshi's cryptic dismissal
adult scorn of immaturity
sanctified trapping of division
infantilist projectionism