Ayei Ibiang
@ayeiibiang080407
1 year ago

SIGNS AND SYMBOLS

There's that corner of our religiosity
that's
darkened with eclipses of skepticism;
that basement our faith is too scared to decend;
those exposed vitals
our beliefs are too vulnerable to defend
That part of our reason that doesn't want to reason,
that part of us that always tends to pretend

There's that part
that questions the path of our religion;
the sermons of our preachers,
the existence of the true God, the Devil
and all of his minions;
the justification of our faith,
and the bases for every religious sign and symbol

So we take up swords for gods we pray to fight
for us;
Jihadists and crusaders,
slapping our holy books in people's faces
while babysitting our deities;
watching both people and lands go up in smoke and blazes


We fanned the hell that we live in with our own two hands
in a bit to doing the will of God
Scooping lava into the bowels of our humanity;
into the cauldrons of peace smelted by the heat of wars

So is freedom of worship at all free?
Or is its absolutism all but a fallacy?
Does it know that it's confined by religious boundaries,
the very reason for infringements and crises?


Maybe religion is just "opium",
a sedative to blur out our senses
A pacifier to the poor
who source for hope within the four walls of religious fences

Or maybe we are all part of the "Godhead" after all
- the discerners of his mind and will
His rod and staff, his gavel;
the sword he swings in judgement to kill


But from all we've seen,
I don't think religion was meant to unite us in love
Or maybe the extremists
were just
the wrong preachers of the right message

So how can we then love men who don't share in the same
religious belief, sign and symbol?
Why do we even war
against those who are of a divergent religion?


And so with fingers working the beads we said the penance,
rocking the symbol of our faith until mercy was pacified;
till our sins were put to sleep;
till our lips hummed the "Hail Mary" into a lullaby,
deep kisses firmly impressed
upon the naked body of the crucified

We prayed,
with quaky hands clutching that depiction
of a dying Messiah
But for every time we kissed upon the crucifix,
a Judas was reborn;
betrayers of the humanity that once was
right before the wars begun



***



Written by: Ibiang, Ayei Okoi
Tuesday, 31st August, 2021.
6:51pm
#Aï
#Nirclestories
#Poetry