HOLY PLAGUE

We’ve been invaded,

Harassed and battered

Broken and torn apart

By a strange, nameless menace.

It started as nothing,

And grew into a wild beast,

It began like a cool breeze

And morphed into a storm

The noise keeps rising:

The shouts, the loud halleluiahs,

The buildings keep doubling,

Here and there a new structure

Now and then a new signboard

Each new day, a new nomenclature,

Each season, a new, troubling doctrine.

The number keeps swelling,

The offerings keep getting fatter,

The sermons keep changing

To meet the longings of the age.

Retreats are on the increase,

Concerts at every corner

Now and then the globe is toured

This moment or the next a soul is won

But all things are as were

Before the dawn of the hoy ones

The world is still the world

And men are still men

Flesh still feels like flesh

And blood still flows like blood.

The saved and the unsaved

Still tread the path of all flesh.