The Incongruent

By Cliff Lake

 

The Incongruent

 

The cleric leads them

Through the prayers,

Constructed from doctrine

Twisted out of Scripture

And made palatable

For the already-decided.

He retires to his study,

Absently tumbling his Bible

To fall to the floor with a thud

In favor of settlement

To consult the heterodox:

The creed supplied

Through greeded rationale

Assembled by persons

Who long discarded their humanity.

In this way will he shape

The flock he shepherds,

To become the wolves

Required by the masters,

That suffer his existence.

Dully, he imagines vast power,

Massaged and manipulated,

Contrived and contributed,

From within his very tenement

Consecrated by his office,

Imposed upon the sleepy populace,

Affording him impervious authority

And exemption from retribution.

He stands in the clutter,

Of the office assigned to him,

And pontificates to a dusty window.

Caught up in reverie,

Of imagined conquest

Of dullards and disposables,

He advances on the imagined

With upraised fist

And stentorian speech,

And trips over the fallen tome.

Standing, he returns meekly

To the crooked tenets

He has traded,

For a soul he is unsure

That he ever possessed.

His dictionary falls open,

To the word “irony.”

Irritated, he flips the page,

Still uncertain of what he is looking for…

 

Cliff Lake 4/23/2023

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2023

Location: Dalton, MA, USA

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