The Holy Franchise

They built a cathedral taller than a crucifix,

so you'd have to crane your neck just to question it.

Look up, Look up!

And keep your eyes off the bodies.

.

For the Crusades were not a mistake.

They were a memo.

Subject: This land belongs to us now.

CC: everyone who disagrees.

BCC: history.

.

And history, listen:

History has been trying to disclose something to us

with its hands cut open:

The Inquisition's math is logical—confess and burn, deny and burn.

.

The boarding schools where children arrived

speaking the language of banned books.

And the men in the white collars

who told women: Your body is a theological emergency.

.

But I have also seen my grandmother

press her forehead to the floor at 5 am.

It is out of something I do not have a word for

in my dry mouth.

.

But this is not about your god.

I am spouting about the horde

who learned His signature

and signed Her name on everything.

.

Because I have seen the church that hid the Jews.

I have seen the mosque at midnight,

pots still on the stove,

and the temple that kept the light on

when everything else went dark.

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I am not here to autopsy your god.

I am here to circumvent

this ouroboros.

.

Because holiness became a hierarchy,

love became a loyalty exam,

and the door that every prophet said

was open

grew a hasp,

a guard,

a list

of who was worthy

to knock.

.

And someone said: Yes, there is something more than this.

And someone else said:

Yes, and I'm the treasurer.

.

That is the thing I'm naming.

Not faith,

but faith

weaponized.

Not God,

but God

franchised,

trademarked,

deployed.

.

Great sermon. We're monetizing the mountain.

Burning bush merch is in production.

.

Sign here. Here. Here.

That's the poem.

That's always been the poem.