Epiphany

"Here, here!" to organized religion!

We stayed where we were.
Mending our own slit throats,
coaxing the flesh back,
independent of your hollow banter.

The corners of your mouths were stretched
and met at the back of your skull
until the enthusiasm spilled from your lips
and onto the ground you suddenly claimed as your own.

You forced passed your prophylactic impulses to inhale our air,
fingers pawing your pages,
screeching your wide-eyed dogma.

We were raped before you came here.
Our wombs already having been wiped clean
of the inbred, intergenerational young they once held.

We stuck to the darkened corners of the buildings we used to play in.
You cut the lights and pasted your papers onto the exit signs.

The buildup of blood had been cleaned from beneath our nails,
and the tress of tissue and muscle keeping our necks together had begun to thicken.

But you forced your pages into our throats,
ripping apart what little had been restored.
And you taught us just how valuable those pages become 
when suffused with such damaged blood of the conquered.

You swear you were smiling, but all we saw was teeth.

Then you stuffed them between our legs to fill us with your god.
And we learned how deeply he could move within us.

Reviews

[renea hanna.]

a visciously truthful look at the spread of religion and one man's doctrine to another. unflinching in your description. one of my favorite excerpts: "you swear you were smiling, but all we saw were teeth." the piece feels to me as if it is full of barely restrained rage and i can understand why. you successfully convey the resentment and lasting wounds such actions cause. the only thing that seemed out of place was the word prophylactic. it just didn't seem to fit with the rest of the language use. perhaps try a synonym? keep writing. i enjoyed the power of this piece. thanks.