Gargoyles
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The gargoyles were created to display
Some truth and not to ward off evil things.
Perhaps grotesques were fashioned to betray
The evils of the Church, the devils’ wings
That flapped about inside and out. Again,
The beasts were more a prophecy of what
Clawed Christianity would do to men.
The Roman church’s creed produced a glut,
Abhorrent in monstrosities, and so
These decorations, waterspouts foretold
The psychopathic Inquisition’s woe
Imposed on pureness, God’s sins manifold.
You’d simply need to see one Cranmer hand
Charred off in Papist flames to understand.
~ Phillip Whidden
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