I. faithless

faith is just another way of saying
fancifully, inside a pulpit with the window shades drawn,
"I put all my coins inside a slot machine, and hoped for the triple 7."

while faith may be so meaningful, you say
and God is a nebulae far, far away
in a galaxy I've no hope to touch

I can't exactly bring myself to believe
in the same way I once did
with my knees aching on amen panels

you see I've chained myself to a comet for a single year
365 days and I come home smelling of stale beer, old vomit, and hooker-sheeted motels
and I can't, I really can't, see those stained glass windows in the same way again.

it isn't my fault, really
I was brought to the ruin of a drive-by shooting, a great snatch at my heart
the Gilgamesh-styled con: "Faith is all you need, now stick your hand in an alligator's mouth."

pray hope it doesn't bite down
because then, well, there goes a hand and there goes your belief
and there, there flutters the wings of the angel that so tricked you

the wings of the angel that so possessed you.