Taught by Nuns

[Mike Daniels]

Taught by Nuns

She speaks concretely
of serendipity and corruption
as if coincidence is malice.

Her lips twist into shape,
and her tongue flays her teeth
in reprimand. All language
sounds harsh as velcro,
glued to her target.

She peels back the flesh,
inch by scrawny inch, exposes
the richness of the stew within
as if she fed upon the pain.
She relishes her victim
symbiotically, sharing
the experience unselfishly
as she has been taught.

At prayer, she wears her conviction
like a promise, like an engagement.
On the back of her Hail Marys,
she expects satisfaction
in some deeply carnal way -
almost orgasmic. She lusts
after God, her knees locked,
her hands and arms embracing faith.
Thus she was shown how to kneel
as she pleads her case.

Call all her sins, and she renounces
every one in time for absolution;
pride and envy and lust fail
in the end, and leave only a vague hope
of Heaven.

[Catherine Edmunds]

Hmm... Convent girls. They can turn out pretty peculiar. My Mum was in an orphanage run by nuns for a while, and thought them the most sadistic bunch of people she'd ever met. They meant well, but were very keen on corporal punishment and harsh discipline, etc. In Mum's case, she went in a Jew, and came out an atheist, but if the religion 'sticks', it can become distorted and cruel, with little hope of salvation at the end unless some inner goodness somehow survives.

So much harm is done to so many people in the name of received religion.

Excellent and thought provoking poem.

[Louis P. Burns aka Lugh]

If you think the nuns bad, you should check out the Christian Brothers! A complete parcel of vermin that lot. My Dad lives with dyslexia. As a kid I used to read for him. He told me recently that he got a terrible beating from one of the 'christian' brothers because he was caught writing with his left hand in his first year at their school. I believe, as does my father, that they traumatised him into not wanting to learn to read or write. May the Christian Brothers rot and fall apart at the doorsteps of their percieved heavens...

Excellent poem Mike. I second Delph's opinions on it entirely mate.

Cheers ...

[spacecadet]

Being beaten and scolded as a sinister for writing left handed? That brings back memories. The sixties certainly sucked if you were stuck in a small religiously hung up village.

[Louis P. Burns aka Lugh]

Nothing really changes though Dave. Religion still destroys and this seems to be its modus operandi. Thwart individuality. Make everyone comply but never offer explanations that are believable. Change their minds on a whim to confound and confuse.

I don't want to take up too much of this thread which is Mike's poetry but this could turn into a great conversation among us all. If no-one minds, I'll set it up on the Debate & Discussion's board for us to continue. Click here.