It stands,
a wooden monument
to house
gluttony, lust, avarice.
Forgive all and forget none.
Erected by mortal men
for immortal purposes
its benevolence
rung true
in the clattering bells.
It knows your suffering,
your pain.
It clearcuts a path
straight to God.
A small version
of that tower
that he tore down
so long ago.
2 comments:
The influence of growing up within the church culture has really held great sway over my life and my view of organized religion, but you know that already.
Where's Edward when you need him? This seems like a poem right up his alley. We really take things and make them bigger than they actually are, all in the name of God. A couple of the lines here remind me of old Puritan writings that preached fire and brimstone like the line "forgive all and forget none." I like the ending allusion to Babel because it closes off the forgiveness with wrath. It's a pretty temperamental God that people believe in.
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