Buick

An exercise in simile deconstruction, a linguistic exercise so to speak

Last night on Facebook,
I told the world
that I was going
to sit in my garage
and pretend that
I was a Buick

The family and friends
that responded must not
have understood the
deeper context of  
the random comment

Of course I make
random comments
on Facebook
all the time

But, that comment
is based on the
analogous adage
about churches
and Christians
and cars
and garages

Or maybe they did

One thought
I was Mercedes,
while another
thought I
should be
a beastly
four-squared thing

Maybe it was
a comment
about my
human nature
according to
other humans,
the ones closest
to me anyway

But that doesn’t
matter to the
omnipotent,
omnipresent,
omniscient,
omnibenevolent
creator of the
Hebrew universe,
Arab universe,
and the universe
of Western civilization

After the service
last night, my spouse
informed me that
the choice is as
simple as that,
hell as fire or
heaven as water

And I felt like
I was in that
Kevin Costner film,
where he was
the officer racing
around the Pentagon
trying to conceal
his role in the death
of his overseer’s mistress

No wonder
atheism is
so tempting
to so many

No wonder
I sit here and
wonder if I am
hellbound like
so many others

The exorcist
basically informed
me, my wife, and
the congregation
that Holy Mother Church
doesn’t believe in the
existence of freethinkers,
atheists and agnostics

Accept or burn
was the mantra
of his sermon,
the mantra of
all his sermons

Some Christians
surely think that
faith is the concrete
basis for existence,
and thus investigating
existence should be
based on faith
because even
empiricism has
preconditions
that must be
accepted on faith

So no matter what,
the religious people
hold the intellectual
high ground and the
number of faithful
adherents know that
and gladly flaunt it

No wonder they
don’t accept the
claims of
victimization
brought forth
by the non-religious

And I am not
a Buick even
though I go to
my garage to put
garbage in the
receptacle or to
put the snow shovel
against the south wall

Therefore,
I am hellbound
like most of the
recalcitrant souls
out there

No matter what,
there is no easy way
because there is
no way out

Accept or burn

Whatever and Ever, Amen!

Author's Note

Please be kind, and thank you for reading and reviewing.

Reviews

[Daniel Atkinson]

I love this. It captures my thoughts of religion in a wonderfully written, superbly developed poem. And the Ben Folds Five reference at the end made the whole things absolutely wonderful. Nicely done.