Timothy Devaney
All Rights Reserved
Bardo Exhibit at the County Fair
(admission is free)
It is said to be spiritual currency
absolving all liability
They gather before healer’s pulpit
an orgy of tongues in repentance
all southern twang & soft lights
for unleavened morsels of salvation
Death tends to be utter confusion in an
express lane for untimely departures
Currency and denominations fall silent
alone with the oddities of confession
a dark-velvet tollbooth
Rates are higher than ever but the gate
stands nigh for those willing to accept
without question dead metaphors
& forty fables of nomadic children
wandering a desert wilderness
of predatory televangelists
sporting big hair & serrated teeth
Timothy Devaney
A study indicates that raising children with religion provides mental health benefits. Here is the link:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2018/09/17/raising-kids-with-religion-or-spirituality-may-protect-their-mental-health-study/#1eac5fe43287
Bardo is a museum of ancient art in Tunisia where islamist terrorists killed 24 in 2015, they like to change history. Maybe the poet is calling the Judeo-Christian story another ancient art of holy death. I don’t think televangelists are predatory as they perform a service that customers willingly buy. Our 1.4 liter brains desperately desire infinity or at least the next breath. In the story of chosen people in the promised land they conquered, got conquered, almost exterminated and conquered/colonized/immigrated again. Next will probably be nuclear carpet bombing of Israel. The Roman conquest was the best (for evidence see The Life of Brian, “What have the Romans done for us?”) and there was a carpenter turned rabbi who taught repentance and forgiveness. “My kingdom is not of this world,” and “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and render unto God that which is God’s.” Transcendence is comfort.