Obsequies of the heathen

A lanthorn glimmers in the cornered gloom

Enlightening the chiaroscuro drapes,

Prophetic elegies amid the shadows loom:

Apostate sighs in columns rise from fiery scapes.

Veiled in a silent agony he waits

Like a Mantegnan Christ, so long ago,

Who has bestowed us with redemptive fates

That resonate the deeds of ours below.

Alack, heralds of human woe and fear,

Where goes the Lord they held so dear,

Where goes the restless spirit of their priest

Who fades and leaves this fawning feast?

Behold thy flock bereft of sanity,

Humility, respect and dignity.

There is no God in a communal farce,

Where honesty and truth are sparse.

There can’t be any faith in pride’s abode,

When vaunting and conceit implode.

There can’t be providence to guide the minds

When overbearing mass emotion blinds.

A feeling of dread and imposed sorrow

Broods over obsequies foreseen,

The shepherd so expires in this morrow

Where pietism and agnostic thoughts convene.

The red-cloaked hellions rally in solemn rite

With feigned designs beneath their tell-tale masks,

Ravens croak in the depths of skies that blight

By pinnacles and false carpenters’ tasks.

No Lazarus will rise from the trough

Until men will drown in delusion’s seas,

Since we, the pensive souls, have had enough

Of man’s predicaments, faith’s worst disease.

Men should always die in humility,

And never be revered like earthly Gods.

So Church you’ve lost your credibility

And my trust and my respect by all odds.

Your shepherd should have died alone, in peace,

Without the sinful honours of a sire of yore.

Like Christ upon his tattered fleece

In that one Mantegnan humble décor.

keltica's note: I'm openly anti-Vatican but not anti-catholic, I want everyone to know. I used to be catholic myself but then I converted because it is too earthly for my own view of religion and faith. I'm a mixture of New Age, Protestant, Wilderness, Buddhism and Neo-Pagan at the moment. I don't like belonging to a church, honestly. This poem is against the ridiculous show of human emotions at the death of the last Pope, I live in Rome, so I lived it more than people who live in other countries or in other areas of Italy. Well, all I can say is that I was vexed. I felt as if the media were imposing a wake on everyone, it seemed as if every single human being had to show respect for the Pope. Well he only was a man for me who had done a lot of good, but he made mistakes as well and he was narrow-minded. All men should die humble according to my philosophy and these were than simple obsequies, this is what happened when an emperor died in ancient Rome!!! So I don't want to offend anyone but since I'm part of a minority, I ask to be respected and understood as well. When your faith is very philosophical and idealistic you cannot tolerate such display of earthly attitude. It is not faith I saw, it was something awfully human.

With respect and friendship, Keltica