WHEN RELIGION BECOMES YOUR OPIUM

WHEN RELIGION BECOMES YOUR OPIUM When religion becomes your opium you slip into icy pre-dawn to mosque then lie in fever flu at dusk as bilal calls again for you to stumble towards beckoning forefinger guilt chalices cringing crying You chant morning to night wrapped in dirty linen blights mantras channelled centuries ago resin rosary threadbare kitabs torn, curtains undrawn biscuits crumbled alongside salted slippers prayer coats ghostly watch blustery blinkers Your heart remains judgement tight with rusty mental railway lines unbuckled only to fight canaries flown from stilted cages wire worn walls cracking ceilings catalysing You speak in unremitting riddles try not to scream at dismal doors knitted beard knotted knives of seamen gambles enticing lovers of yesteryear who remain embedded in elbow joints as you catch rain in buckets of shame You refuse to let in visions of New Earth as this opium mix targets rude roaring fire planets in unrelenting fear colour remains brown black tinges of diseased blood slowly trickle teary tattered trousers torn This drug is an only taste angels fly past in haste fezzes stuck on mothy mat knows no soapy skyline sighs underpinned by judgement made in desert ritual fears God knows no such forlorn framed jibbas or jibe jihads Opium can open too tunnels into tortoiseshell havens of heather or healing hearths when heart is given a hexagon hello helix headwaters can heady rush or opium can merely remain the sniffing powder in your box ©GhairoDanielsPoetry& Song2016