Heart Disease
Men think to use gold, trivialities,
To turn their superstitions, nonsense of
Their so-called thought, to firm realities.
They pile up symbols of agape love,
Like golden crucifixes, golden rings
And gilded crosses all around a snap
Of some dead pope. These gilded, golden things
Are meant to perjure death and give a map
To verity beyond the fact of death.
A reliquary made of brass with gilt,
A diamond set in silver, baby’s breath
Around a symbol, are a type of stilt.
These props help us pretend that popes can win
Against the doom that grows in veins, within.
~ Phillip Whidden