Thursday, August 16, 2018

day FIVE HUNDRED and SEVENTY FOUR

heaven is hell

you can’t justify
the rape and assault
of thousands of kids

you can’t explain it away
or apologize

this catholic “problem”

you can’t reason promising children heaven
while putting them through hell

ruining countless lives in the name of christ

back then we knew the priests to stay away from
…or some of the lucky did

father richie who always wondered
why martin never came around

used to call us and whine on the phone
used to grab us in the hallways

the ones who didn’t attract him as much

oh, where’s martin?
why is martin treating me this way?

father richie who the pittsburgh dioceses
moved around from church to church
for almost twenty years

letting him take nude photos of boys
fondle their gentiles and whatever else
pine over their adolescent flesh
while watching us sweat at cyo basketball games

before some bishop put him on leave
because the heat grew too big
because ignorance in sin have always been the catholic way

father richie who died in columbia
living his “flamboyant” gay lifestyle
murdered in his apartment

while running a boy prostitute ring
for horny american men

“flamboyant” is a catholic word for shame

you can’t justify
the rape and assault
of thousands of children, motherfuckers

you can’t apologize this horror away

there are no sorries
there are no one million our fathers
no thousands of hail marys
to serve as a penance

no bullshit words from the pope
no bullshit edict from rome

no confessional booth big enough to house
your reverent flock of rapists and pedophiles

there is nothing left on this earth
for a religion as corrupt at its core

that has damaged so many lives

except to die
its withered and black death

die on the vine
and be no more.

--John Grochalski


                                    




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