As Long As You Please


Do preserve my soul

For I am loyal

O thou, my God

Save your servant

Who puts his trust in thee


Protect my soul

For I am faithful

Oh, God save your servant

Who soldiers thy charge


Keep my soul

For I am holy

Deliver your helper

Save my soul

For I am yours


As a child


As a man


As a ghost


(The Child)


As long as your please


: Kneel


Please :


Seek ye first


Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness

All things shall be given unto you

His grace moves faster the taller your yoke


Love your master


Love your master as the frog loves the hook

His mirror gaze, skyward view


Thankful

Stuffed


Pleased


Just as every thief loves a crook, every rainmaker seeds the skies of an unplowed dog’s dream


As long as you please


(The Man)


As long as you please

Once picked

Bullwork seized


Like a denned mother stroking her knees

An apron string bridle

Weaving hands to bless the feed bag

His name be praised


Feel the deacon’s hands over a colder bath

The hen,

The egg,

The nest

Its where you end up

Crushed tracks on either side

Arms crossed as the din of worship ascends


Let it be in me

Let it enter unseen

Release me

Exorcise the starved dog, let it’s lead fall into that pit

Forgotten


Never full, never whole

In that fever mine where we’d lay and pray for disguise

Pray not to be found

Pray for the end


As long as you please


(The Ghost)



: Kneel


Please :


As long as you please


Proselytize for lift

Thrust ecumenical grift


Shear off their wings

Bury the heads in a ditch


Remodeled renaissance, poached psalms from the old Gods

Zealotry sealed in secret handshakes and nods


A man could die for this?

Get crucified for this?


Genuflect and let the beltway grip your ears, eyes, and neck

This is death by degrees

Bullwork seized


As long as you please


NONE


WAS


MADE


BY HIS HAND


SAVE CHAINS



NONE


WAS


MADE


BY HIS HAND


SAVE


SLAVES



NONE


WAS


MADE


BY HIS HAND


SAVE


CHAINS



NONE


WAS


MADE


BY HIS HAND


SAVE GRAVES





It’s smoldering in the yard

All eyes behold gods ignorance

The fire devours us all

The hate and fear you read from your text

This comfort was built with your bones

The fat and the meat and the souls
(Gods ignorance)

Is it too much to ask to belong?

The believers they lied about love
(Gods ignorance)


Hatred raised by ancient fear

Of smiles and words that you don’t speak

Your words from books of holy prayer

Used to oppress the poor and weak

The blame is in our grabbing hands

Our greed that lays the world to waste

Benign the colors of the land

Obscene the fear of other ways

Ignorance on gods sweet tongue

A bitter scream in stained glass ears

As hatred spills from Jesus’ cup

You’ve lapped it up for all these years

You bathe in it to purify

And call yourselves the master race

You hide behind an empty throne

Convinced that bigotry is grace.