POETRY

The warrior pope on his deathbed

by Daniel Wright

I will be damned, my son, and so I should.
The canon says "Thou shalt not kill." I killed.
I stole a sacred post, for earthly good.
God's judges knew no Law but what I willed.
The Lord, my judge, must cast me to the pit,
consign me to despair unending; may He
know that my lusts have served his church, admit
my sins were ad majorem gloriam Dei.

Those crimes will live long past my dying breath.
I hold no hope of Heaven. I will not
accept forgiveness. I will suffer death,
eternal death, no mere three days of rot.

My offering of flesh more dearly priced,
by sin I will become a second, greater Christ.