Through the Narrow Gate

With a stuttered heart and

a careful exhalation of this fragile breath

I beheld my dead aunt with these lifeless eyes

Tears trickled down my marble cheeks

Then, I carefully sniffled

To recapture my lost breath

For, I’m not ready to lie motionless

Before so many fear stricken faces  and

Pretend that I am somewhere safe

Outside this present nightmare

Suddenly, a curmudgeonly pastor

Adorned with bleak blackness

Ascended the stage before my aunt’s

Bedraggled Body

It was a welcoming sight because-

Didn’t pastors pacify

This unsettling grief

Of course, his words were reverent

Flowery descriptions of my aunt’s empathy

Flowered the desolate wasteland of my

Deathly thoughts

Flowers overflowed in excess in this church

To ward away the melancholy that visits us

They were affixed to the windows

Acting as sentries to watch

For the malevolent forces of the outside world-
          These fiends cannot even enter through the

Small crack of these immaculate sheets of

Grime-less Glass

Eventually, the chilling air of

This cloistered church

Confined me to the coldness of my

Corrosive Mind

The seemingly warm pastor

Transfigured himself into death itself

While he invoked the indignant spirit

Of his supposed Imperturbable God

A hint of mournful surrender
Entered his voice

While he solemnly spoke about

The many people unlike my aunt

Who cannot partake in communion and exist

Beyond this temporal state of tragedy

Only we are entrusted with the secret knowledge

To pass through the narrow gate between

Death and the unknown

We that are few in number will

Bask in God’s glory

While the rest fall into a state

Of Sleep where they’ll

Never be remembered

Or have a chance to be loved

Everyone in the church produced

A facsimile of Mary’s smile

While I struggled in vain

With my resilient empathy

For all the lost sheep

Whom never found the serenity

That salvation supposedly insures

My heart tugged at my eyes and

Flooded them with waters

Which the elect like Noah

Masterfully Evaded

By receiving favor in God’s eyes-

Why didn’t he care at all for those he left behind?

Oh God, Where are my friends?

Have they been deemed worthy of damnation

Because their inquisitive minds

Couldn’t properly believe in you.

If this blissful eternity requires

A large number of your flock

Falling into the abyss of the Forgotten

Then, I refuse to be trapped forever in this false joy

As the funeral gathering reveled in their God-granted gladness

                                I ripped down a few flowers obscuring the windows

And peered into Perdition

Through the unfathomable depths of these shadows

Ghostly apparitions of the damned appear

They were undergoing the second death-

Signified by their tortured cries

That shook the aura of peace

Emanating within the stronghold of this church

Again, the semblance of sadness

Threatened to overfill my soul

In retaliation of this jubilant body

Which urged me onwards back into the

Pocket of endless joy

Within the church

I tore at more of the the flowers

Yet they continued to grow back

Frustrated,I screamed madly

As I forced my thoughts to deeply empathize

With the perished souls outside these windows

For one fleeting moment, they grasped for God’s

Loving  hands only to

Find themselves dissipating into the darkness

Till they were no more-

They were the unforgiven, and the forgotten

Fracturing the window

My repressed sadness was awakened-

Tears spilled from my bleary eyes

Screams issued from my unholy lips

Matching the frequency and terror of those

Left Outside

Without realizing it, I was suspended in the darkness

Floating away from the church

A number of disparate spirits

Filled my Morose gaze

They upheld me-My friends

Together, we would soon fade into the darkness

Forlornly, I looked at the church-

The Dear Departed one

That refused to Love in the name of

Selfishly seeking “salvation”

They passed over us like

Those who suffered from Leprosy

My leprosy was the infection of love

Love that refused to part

With my brother’s just so I could

Eternally indulge in the gifts of the sainted heaven

Oh friends, embrace me once more

There still lies hope

That there lies another minute crack

Along this Deceptively Dark Gate

Far beyond our earthly senses