text:

 

the words of god bound his wrists and ankles
like a lamb led to slaughter
there is divinity in his blood
that spreads through his veins like a disease
placed lovingly, carefully, tenderly, viciously
by a gentle hand with blood caught under the nails
and in the creases of its palm

and he was sculpted by sanctity
in god’s own image
and in god’s own image he is butchered
carried to a heavenly doorstep and sliced open
eviscerated, gutted, mutilated
his blood spills to the earth in atonement,
in apology
and he is cast aside, left to return to the ground from which he was taken
left to drip his holy disease into the dirt,
his human divinity that stains
the hands of those that loved him
he fades with the taste of sweet sin on his tongue
and the whisper of god’s everlasting love in his ear

when he closes his eyes he can pretend he is home
in the arms of his lover
who has never felt heartbreak like he will when the sun rises
and he finds his bed empty and cold
it will be weeks before he learns the truth
and the truth will break his heart all over again
the continental divide splitting his chest wide open,
ripping him apart
and he will fall to his knees
and face the sky
and cry to a god that ignores him