Religion Killed the One I Love

Religion killed the one I love,
sent him flying, halfway
'cross the room as his father
reached for his trusted 'Bible Belt'.
"Fags burn in Hell" he bellowed,
blind with fury, as he whipped his
dear son almost to death.

Religion killed the one I love,
threw hot acid on her face,
one day as she returned from school,
without her head covering
because she had been running
through the fields of flowers,
in giddy joy and ecstacy. And forgot.

Religion killed the one I love
as he looked upward from the raucous
flames that swept around his valiant
form, his heart rising in triumph o'er
that auto da fe, some 500 years hence.
Their power fueled by greed;
his riches, faith.

Religion killed the One I love.
I know, I laid my head against
His Breast, as we talked on and on

for hours, late, at 4 am, with the bookers
and the Wall-Street boys, priests and
power-pros.

He'd sigh, His Eyes
always soft, His Voice so tender...

As He told us how the gays,
the gone over-boards, the drunks,
the dumb and the dizzy were already getting in,

In on the next Big Thing...

Life Eternal, Forever Young, botox-free
Where the worthless are wealthy,
the blind are painters...

And where His Hands
still bleed from Love,

Just for proof...

Religion killed the One I love,
strung Him up high, for mocking
eyes and self-righteous stares
of all who hail their Marys
and say their prayers
while turning up the temperature
because the cold turns their words

to ice.

Photo credits: Jeff Mawer