This rite and ritual goes on and on.
This is how they pass the time
and boredom here
in this land of the foreigners
and the familiar.
They count the cash
of the queen for her queenly deed
of buying indulgences from churches
reeking with the cheap tactics
for seeking forgiveness.
They are the means and methods,
these tactics, mean and deceitful,
and as old as the mossy walls
of the convents of sinning clerics
their lay apostles
their accomplices
in shining armor,
they who come to pray
in evenings, adore the lord of life
in barren chapels and empty pulpits
in times of war and want
in times of loss and love,
conflicted and callused,
the very core of this celebration
tonight and in the nights
that will come after,
the night the queen will claim
her crown, her majesty
in her fairest
her princesses hovering
like rare butterflies
like muses unable to beget
children and charity
care and concern
except to say
this queenly cause
is in the name of the heavenly
monarchy, with the father
and his kingdom come
and then we parrot the line
about the mansions awaiting us
about the pageantry in gold
and glitter and grand.
Aurelio S. Agcaoili
Pearl City, HI
Jan 28/05
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