Among the Worst Prisons

There are beautiful pictures on the walls
of the prophets and the saints,
the Bible and other religious texts
piled on the glass table by the sofa,
crackling fireplace in front of the sofa,
the room solid, warm like a welcoming friend.
Yet it might be a kind of prison cell
or a womb one wishes never to leave.
Yes – even what one calls God just may be
a prison cell of the worst kind, for the walls
are invisible, subtle, seeming to protect,
stunting growth, the understanding narrow.
The picture, the story of God clung-to
does not mean God is yet among you.
The very picture, story is the fraud,
what keeps you from dying in God.

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