I am a rebel, Sir
With cause enough to fight
My gender is at war
Oppression whets the appetite
With our strength in numbers
And long suffering endured
Our battle hymn unveils –
Inequity wholesale
From the catacombs in Rome
History will rise or implode
Priscilla and Theodora
Will again stand at the altar
I prayed for healing
Closed my eyes
And faced the rising East
A voice within, without, above
Promised no release
I prayed for safety
Free me from
The hate which loads the gun
Good luck with that, I heard quite clear
It’s better if you run
What lies I’ve read my whole life through
Too numerous to count
My little words like grains of sand
Offered up in tears
Fell silently, one by one, from such careless hands
Stop squawking, child, all the noise
You raise has no true merit
Please read between the lines
Suffering and boundless grace
Is all you will inherit
I walk around with my head bent down
Viewing chance as a holiday
Have you heard how I made my rounds
Avoiding cracks till I lost my way
I enter church and I bow my head
Caritas till your sleeve bleeds red
Jonah screamed leave me be I’d rather die
Your new age love is a goddamn lie
He sat below a withered vine
Sulked and scorned, arrogance besieged
Kill me now but I won’t concede
Your hippie love is at best misconceived
I walk around with my head bent down
Humility rests upon the ground
I lose myself in the muck and mire
As such a life bought and bound requires
She knelt before the crucifix
And all the world knelt too
Follow my example
Take heed I first loved you
The beads fell from her hands
Silence collapsed her ears
A thousand souls rushed in and jeered
Taunting her to tears
Why did you not expect
A cleansing to the bone
Press your face against the ground
Welcome your new home
