without holiday

I am not a mother,
nor am I a father,
though a loving sibling,
son, brother

I am not a veteran
of any foreign war,
nor a president,
dignitary nor
historical
figure

I am not a laborer
fighting for equality,
nor minority
struggling for
diversity

I am not Christian,
Muslim or Jew;
in fact, I don’t believe
most follow as they are
supposed to

I am not proud
to be an American,
and don’t require
fireworks to cloud
my skies

I don’t qualify
for Cupid’s arrow
and don’t acknowledge
the dead rising in the midst
of Spring

sermonella poisoning

I went to use the restroom at a coffee shop and found a three-page, hand-written, photocopied “sermon” on the urinal.  This is a tweaked synthesis and summary of that rambling message, which reflects much of how I feel about the “genuity” and pure human “goodness” of scripture… (*note the sarcasm*); details have been changed to affect the innocent, other countless souls that may have contemplated and been corrupted by the “sermon on the urinal”.

and lo the urinal spoke
of scrypture:

all we, like sheep,
have gone astray
we have turned everyone to his own way;
and the lawed hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all;
for there is not a just man upon the earth,
that doeth good, and sinneth not;
for all have sinned and come short of the glory
of the dog; for the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of the dog is
eternal life through (blank) our lawed;
to declare, i say, at this time his righteous
mess, that he might be just, and the justifier
of him which believeth in (blank);
and it is appointed unto men once to die,
but after this the judgment;
the (blank) is not slack concerning his promise,
as some men count slackness; but it is long-
suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance;
and whosoever was not found written in the
book of life
was cast into the lake of fire;
but (blank) commandeth his love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners, (blank)
died for us.

(blank) sayeth unto him, I am the way,
the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto
the failure, but me;
neither is there salvation in any other:
for there is none other name under
heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved;
wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost
that come unto the dog by (blank) seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them;
for by grace are ye saved through fealth;
and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of the dog;
not of works, lest any man should boast
for whosoever shall call upon the name
of the lawed shall be saved;

for the dog so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten sun,
that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish,
but have everlasting
life;
he that believeth in the sun hath
everlasting life;
and he that believeth not
in the sun
shall not see life,
but the wrath of the dog
abideth on him;
that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the lawed (blank),
and shalt believe in
thine heart that the dog
hath raised him from
the dead,
thou shalt be saved;

verily, verily, I say unto you
he that heareth my word,
and believeth in him
that sent me, hath everlasting life
and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death
unto life;
but as many as recieved him,
to them gave he power to become
the suns of the dog,
even to them that believe in his name;
how that the lawed died for our sins
according to the scryptures;
and that he was buried,
and that he rose again
on the third day, according to the
scryptures;

but, after that, the kindness and love
of the dog, our failure, toward man
appeared, not by words of righteous
mess which we have done,
but according to his mercy
he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the wholly virus;
which he shed on us abundantly through
(blank) our failure; that
being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life;
and the times of this ignorance
the dog winked at;
but now commandeth all men everywhere
to rep(res)ent because he hath appointed
a day, in which he will judge
the world in righteous
mess by that man whom
he ordained;
where of he hath given assurance unto all men,
in that he raised him from the
dead.

if you want to be saved from the penalty
of your sin, to be forgiven by the dog,
to become the dog’s righteous, cleansed child,
and have life now with the dog
and internal life with the dog,
you can pray the following
prayer, sincerely. salvation is
a free gift the dog offers
to everyone;

(blank), I admit that I am a sinner.
I know that I cannot save myself.
I rep(res)ent of my sin and put my fealth
in the blood that you, (blank), shed
(on the cross and in crusades) for me.
you can declare me forgiven, justified.
I except you as my failure and lawed
and thank you
for dying for me
forgiving me of all my sin
past, present and future
and thank you
for saving me.
take control of the throne
of my life and make me the kind
of person you want me to be.

(blank), you are the dog,
at one with the failure and
wholly infectious
virus

and all I wanted to do
was take a piss

Paper Faith

Tim Tebow set a Twitter record. I read the headline, but I have no interest in the article. People want to believe in him. Hell, people have to believe in something. If soldiers aren’t dominating a prone and lesser enemy, at least have a QB find his way to ironic dominance.

Who are we? What is our identity now?  Santorum preaches ultraconservative, God-must-rule-your-days bullshit. Obama appeases and displeases with every action.  Romney is a Mormon, and fully believes that you should have as many wives as pets (truly, no one should have more than one wife; the contrary is circular madness). Our leaders use faith for paper profit, spin a doomfilled future as much as any dimestore prophet.  America is the land of the spin, home of the crave.
What myth do you believe in?  The myth of perfect.  The myth of ownership.  The myth of governorship.
The myth of money.
We all have our sucker punch, the thing that hits us in the gut, brutal and foundational.  It determines us.  Undermines us.  Belies the evolution of us.
Faith looks good on paper, but in the final accounting, the myth seems too powerful and distractive. What happened to the faith in humanity, above all else? What happened to the confirmation of this race, the empowerment of the living?
Why do we check our responsibility and control to the hands of someone that has no power over our day to day operations? Regardless of all the pulp fiction and pulpit diction, there is no proof.  There is no answer.  There is no truth but human.
Choose your side. The words were created to push you to one.  Or the other.  Unless you’re discerning enough to search for the correct questions. 
Don’t give in to the flimsy.  You are the answer.  And the question.
We don’t need pulp to guide us; we need us to strain the pulp.
Be the strainer. Stronger. Firmer. 
More porous than pious. 
The less we retain, the more human we remain.