D'Souza

So this manly man
     with a fake smile
Preaches his plans at me
     over the table at dinner
Damns me to hell,
     which is all very well
     for as you all know quite well
     I'm a horrible sinner

He hands me his thoughts
     his old is'es and his aught'ses
Like a toddler assaulting at my heels
     with his sleeves full of snot
"A real man," he said
     "wants a woman in bed"
     but I bed men instead
     so "a real man" I'm not

"Since, Jesus (Don't you know)"
     "made everything so"
"And planned where stuff must go"
      "(if you know what I mean)"
Making a circle with his left hand
     and right takes his middle finger
     demonstrating sex
     with gestures obscene

But Preacher, I said
     head tilted, eyebrow raised
You hardly assume
     such authority to preach
Given the state of your church
     you actually perch
     at the top of a quagmire
     that your god could not reach

Just think of the wars
     that your sermon employs
Not to mention the kids
     that your priesthood 'enjoys'
And the consequent lives
     that your lifestyle destroys
     and the guilty are sheltered
     in endless convoys

Your pope and your bishops
     belong in a cell
Your child raping priests
     should be hung from a tree
Given the scope of
     your wars and your crimes
     I fail to see how you
     could dare to judge me

And then there is you
     with your wife and also
Another woman who
     wears another man's ring
Your married and yet
     you go out and get
     another man's wife
     a peculiar thing

So I'm honestly vexed
     and a tad bit perplexed
And I weep for the sex
     if a "real man" were you
Sanctimonious smile
     and an unctuous tone
     sounds all a bit smug
     if not downright untrue

So let's not pretend
     I'm all but your friend
And I won't let this end
     with me condemned to hell
You'll have appear
     to make your product more appealing
     given the gruesome veneer
     of the god that you sell

-o0o-

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/10/16/dinesh-dsouza-who-opposes-gay-marriage-is-divorcing-his-wife-for-a-younger-woman/

http://gawker.com/5953049/married-dinesh-dsouzas-mistress-also-married

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-corvino/dsouza-the-real-problem_b_1998800.html

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2012/10/why-the-dinesh-dsouza-scandal.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/nyregion/dinesh-dsouza-is-out-as-kings-college-president-in-scandal.html?_r=0

Thus spoke Satan

I cannot... will not forgive you
My melodious friend, my agile brother
You sharp tongued devil
Indeed, God was your strength

As you abused your power
Forsaking me to the abyss
As we fell from on high
Old Gibreel, you lucky bastard

How beautiful you are
How great it must be to be famous
To languish so beautifully in their applause
So effortlessly

While I ploughed the earth, face-first
With a mouth full of sand
You danced on your way to the ground
And landed, tippy toes, with a song in your heart

-o0o-

This poem was submitted as a part of Poetry Potion's "A Poem a day" challenge. The topic was "The Satanic Verses: the title of Salman Rushdie’s fourth novel." Poetry Potion also requires a person to add additional information or a glossary in a paragraph below each poem if necessary. Here's what I wrote:

The story in the Satanic Verses begins with Gibreel and Saladin falling from an exploded aeroplane, Gibreel having taken on the spirit of the Archangel Gabriel/Jibril and Saladin having taken on the spirit of Satan/Shaitan. Saladin remains jealous and spiteful towards Gibreel throughout the story. Gibreel is treated with respect and Saladin is treated with suspicion. Saladin drives Gibreel to commit suicide eventually among other things. Given that the story is loosely based on the story of Mohammed, it can be understood why this story caused so much outrage in a world in which Mohammed is seen as the perfect prophet.

Gabriel in Hebrew means God is my strength

Bag Man

He scratches on the window pane
He calls to every child by name
He snatches them into the rain
And every night he does the same

Here and there a missing soul
Night rent with cries, anguished mothers
Who plead for loved ones eaten whole
By night hiding darkly others

At night check window, hatch and door
Make sure your child is tucked away
He comes for those that rise before
The sun that keeps the fiend at bay

And just because you're grown up now
Does not mean he won't do the same
He'll find you someday, soon, somehow
His scratching at your window pane

Your blind to him and where he goes
But his eyes will always find you
He always watches; always knows
He's standing right behind you

I am complete

I am not this crude, crass thing

This effigy of stuff

Carved out of your disappointment

Chiselled out, reckless and rough

Un-living me, the Pygmalion chunk

Unrefined boulder to your lust

The unfinished masterpiece

Body-less, shapeless, marble bust

I am not this homunculus

Your golem etched out of clay

Your lies written on my tongue

An excuse to pave your way

I am not your junk
Rubble to hamper your cause

Baby thrown out with the bathwater

Blamed for your flaws

My love is a cherished thing

My heart hangs on the finest walls

Not petrified by your visage

I'm unmoved to all your calls

-o0o-

The story of Pygmalion occurs in Greek and Roman mythology, where the goldsmith and sculptor Pygmalion of Cyprus carved a sculpture of a woman out of ivory. Seeing the beauty of the statue, Pygmalion appealed to Venus to bring the statue to life for him. She did and Pygmalion and the statue married and had a son, Paphos, and in some stories also a daughter, Metharme.

Homunculus comes from the Latin, "little man" and originates in ancient preformationist philosophy. Preformationism believed that the entire human being is preformed, completely, as a baby within the sperm and that women are merely some sort of flower bed in which human beings are planted and did not contribute to the child apart from carrying it. This is often considered rather vulgar by feminists as well as being understood as nonsense by geneticists and scientists as a whole today. In alchemy (particularly with reference to the golem below, in rare cases and fringe alchemical writings) sperm was used to create inanimate objects come to life as the soul of the homunculus was said to possess creative power and had the capacity to imbibe objects with life and sentience. This process was often fraught with danger as only God is supposed to create life and this activity often came with risks and severe punishment.

The golem in this poem refers to two incidents. Firstly, from Psalm 139v16 in which golem (GLM rendered in the text as GLMI "my unrendered shape" / "my unformed stuffs" / "my frameless being" so-to-speak) means unshaped stuff or unformed substance. Personally, I've always found this 'substance' somewhat analogous to the mythology of the unshaped substance of chaos and the cosmic waters in most creation myths. The second reference is to the mythology of the created being in Jewish mythology, most notibly the golem of rabbi and achemist Judah Loew ben Bezalel of Prague (1520-1609) also known as the Maharal of Prague. Loew was said to have created a golem out of clay to protect the Jews of the Prague Ghetto from blood libel fuelled antisemitic attacks. Loew was said to have made the Golem in the same way that JHVH was said to have created Adam. The golem supposedly had the word "Truth" (Emet) written on its forehead, or on its tongue, or on a scroll or tablet placed within its mouth. The only way to destroy the creature was to remove the first letter, rendering the word "Met" or "dead". This process was reversible and the golem could be set upon their enemies at will.