An Intolerable Sound

Feel, how softly down the throat

this morsel with its sugar-coat

slithers! It’s like an antidote

to all the things the apostles wrote.

Their words are foul, a ringing sound,

but here’s a cure our team has found

– a world of doctrines, gathered round –

a constant dose til their words are drowned.

OUT with the droning of ancient apostles!

What we hanker for is something novel:

something mystical, Pentecostal,

stories with vigour and moral muscle!

And – ah – a teaching to cure the itch

in our ears and feed the dreams of the rich.

It’s a pleasing plan without a hitch,

a passionate, pragmatic religious pitch.

So come, let’s lie where the sea wave beats

to swash our ears clean of bleats.

We’ll feed on low-fat milk, and sweets,

all sorts of soothing pills and treats.

We’ll share with all who wander there

in easy, light, permissive air

where no one judges, and none forbear

and life could lead us anywhere.

This is freedom – feel its chains!

This is where the individual reigns

where no supposéd truth constrains

our steering hearts and creative brains.

We’ve come so far.

Recall those trapped

in squirming seats as preachers yapped?

Where are they now? More tightly wrapped

in the grasp of God! How very apt.