Our mouths used to choke
with cries
to a god
we called father

Such helpless-
ness is hard to spell
spoken best in silence
as the priests’ voices

rise in sermons
to punctuate each syllable
of our scripted faith

where He is
the One holy man
while we are
unsaid silences
disciplined consciences aside

heeding Him, praising Him
until we grow
weary of litanies
to opulent phalluses,
cold Caucasian saints

until we learn to beseech salvation
from within us
our m/other gods.

We now learn to invoke souls
long gone
out of His cathedrals
ornate erections all
that we now castrate

as we ritualize our refusal
to choke ourselves with cries
and call god father.