ME AND THE DEMONS
Seven years old
in Saint Cecilia's church,
murals of scorched monsters,
red obscenities
dragging souls to hell.
Nudged down the left aisle
to that marble altar
I kneel under huge pillars
distant from the priest
whose beatific radar doesn't track
my schoolboy error
and I eventually give up.
Denied the sacrament,
denied protection
I return demoralised to the pew,
to my little life
just me and the demons now.
Flights e-Journal, May 2023. Editor Darren Beaney.
Easy to picture this scene. Kids have that mixture of curiosity
and wanting to believe that the images of religion seek to
satisfy and persuade. The Jesuits used that too well - and in its
modern form, the sort of imposed teaching still found across
less secular parts of the globe reflects that reality when it
comes to influencing immature unformed minds.
Sat 17th Jun 2023 11:01
Thanks John.
To think that in times past, people believed the stories in those pictures as the literal truth.
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john short
Sun 18th Jun 2023 13:01
Yes, I tend to agree with the French that religious opinion should be kept out of education.