When Will the Lights Come On?

There’s just a hint of anger
Each time the Church comes up.
You must have felt its judgment;
You must have feared the cup.
You must have heard “unworthy”
So many times you quake,
And all your parents’ efforts
Somehow a big mistake.
_____
The cloister and confessional,
The habit and the rail,
The incense and the Latin,
The good intents that fail.
The words sadly out-dated.
The sin that looks like fun.
The myriad of sainted names
That somehow cloud God’s Son.
_____
Oh pity that your light to date
Has been the counterfeit.
The rules, the regs, the form
That begs the very heart of it.
Religion is a love affair
With history’s greatest Friend
He waits for you, and your breakthrough
To joy that knows no end.