strangling heaven

How do you know that

you're strangling heaven?

Taught to irrelevant

standardized scales

Taught to be standardized,

Christian White Males

or wherever you're placed

and timed

Taught to believe the sublime

is but an affectation,

drug-induced hallucination,

not to be relied upon

when creditors come to call

demanding payment

for providing you with life.

Selling your soul for nickels and dimes,

the working-class creed.

Giving in to everyday crimes,

habituated to need

secondhand pleasures,

pirated treasures

that never succeed in

destroying the pain,

the long season of Hell

you strive to explain

"it's his fault" "it's their fault"

"it's my fault"

all victims of blame.

And you're strangling heaven.

You're making it impossible to survive,

denying your passion to thrive,

denying your worth,

the blessing of birth onto

this mortal stage.

You pace in your cage

as if castrated of will.

And heaven so wants you,

surrounds you, offers

your most deeply hoped for love,

boundless happiness, life eternal,

every pocket of your soul

exquisitely fulfilled.

Heaven offers you her open arms,

and you, in your hellish nightmare,

strangle her

unaware.

 

(c) March 12, 2008 Laurie Corzett/libramoon