The Pulpit

Dressed in raiment's vest
bullion gilded stitches grand
arises a fervent eyed
holy man. a prophet whose
heavenly cant illuminates
inspired visions in the
congregation's Cartesian Theatre.
a homunculus dipped in
the Old Testament's
grimly slanted stories.

A liturgy of unintended lip
swift spittle plummets
exalted in excited bursts.
it anoints the unbowed heads
of front row sinners' upturned
faces; masks made baleful 
by their ignorant impenitence.

Understandable when proverbial
lessons grafted to dogma
meanly intertwine in platitudes'
censer chains. confessional's
kneeling litany results
in a penance of unclaimed
prayers; an easy absolution
for lazy behaviours.