The Corpse

"A Gothic cathedral is like a petrified religion." - Coleridge

Fluorescent figurine of the Virgin Mary silently floats down timeless cobblestone streets . . . drunken revelers punctuate carouse to look up in awe, down to glass, back up . . . she floats over and up the colossal masonry steps (trodden and worn by a thousand hideous sins) of the old cathedral . . . stained glass screams down from aloft in solar yellows, envious greens, reds the color of the Messiah's spilled blood . . . floats through Gothic oak doors, brass stains running down from gigantic handles like discolored metallic tears, the somber entrance to some musty twilight dungeon, a prison of the mind, a purgatorial gateway to opposing dimensions where the indecisive are torn apart . . .  through the frozen vestibule . . . past stagnant baptismal bowls, grown putrid through disuse (much more than simple evaporation has occurred here)    . . . past empty dust-blanketed whispering confessionals . . . between row upon row of broken pews, rotting, slightly warm with the natural heat of decay, illuminated by the faint glow of phosphorescence . . . beyond decomposing remains of bibles, ribbons marking some unreadable passage of the Apocalypse . . . buttresses cling precariously to vaulted concrete like a worshipper to his belief . . . lofted ribs seem to heave in eternal despair . . . in the belly of some extinct prehistoric beast that did not adapt, grey and stooped with age, a solemn, slinking shrinking sinking stinking Golem, trapped in the uncertain womb of the afterlife . . . through a forgotten Communion, Blood transmutes to vinegar, Body to dust . . . and then the Altar, scene of incalculable sacrifices, heavenly slab, glorious tombstone, sepulchre of dreams, crypt of the Western World and beyond, forever there will be death. 

     Upon reaching this point the immaculate Mother sheds a single crystal tear hitting the apocryphal stone floor with a hollow reverberant thud thus morphing to carbon in burnt out anguish.  May God only pray.

Trapped in the uncertain womb of the mind - a purgatorial gateway to opposing dimensions - through the frozen vestibule - ribbons marking some unreadable passage of the afterlife through a forgotten communion - blood transmutes to vinegar - body to dust - and then the Altar - crypt of the Virgin Mary silently floats down timeless cobblestone streets - trodden and worn by a thousand hideous sins of the Western World - and beyond forever there will be death - may God's only Gothic grown Altar morph and transmute doors beyond those of the Virgin Mary - trodden and worn by a thousand hideous sins of the Messiah's spilled blood - floats through Gothic oak doors brass stains running down from aloft in solar yellows envious greens reds the color of the Virgin Mary - trodden and worn by a thousand hideous sins of the Apocalypse in the uncertain womb of the Apocalypse - beyond forever there will be death - phosphorescence opposing prehistoric grey down to glass and back up - trodden and worn by a thousand hideous sins of the Virgin Mary - trodden and worn by a thousand hideous sins of the old cathedral - stained glass screams down from gigantic handles like discolored metallic tears - a prison of the Messiah's spilled blood - reds the color of the afterlife - and then the Altar scene - crypt of the mind - past empty dust-blanketed whispering confessionals - some unreadable passage of the Virgin Mary silently floats down colossal masonry steps - passage of the Messiah's spilled blood - a prison of the Western World and beyond forever - the only streets that God in this scene can row by evaporation - between glass somber sacrifices down natural points discolored purgatorial through blood steps stinking -

     "Look, that ribs floats." (could it be Eve?)

     World torn - dimensions hitting twilight - be running with ribbons - marking them confessionals - a slab of reds worship sins of faint revelers - with dust come the yellows of some slight - much here - bowls of bruised bibles - thus from despair sheds the gateway - oak vestibule - disused buttresses in the belly of some extinct golem trapped in the uncertain womb of the old cathedral - crypt of the Apocalypse - passage of the afterlife through a forgotten communion of blood - there will be death upon reaching this point - may God be in awe - vaulted adaptations scream in a sea of cobblestone tongues - floats of stained beliefs - eternal Mother color - simple dreams - crystal unreadable floor like frozen sepulchre - dust-blanketed sinking stagnant beast silently whispering through tear stains of heavenly greens - prison hideous - up floats drunken glow of phosphorescence - trodden and worn by a thousand hideous sins of the mind - the incisive are torn apart - through the frozen confessionals -  broken bibles - reds the color of the Apocalypse - buttresses cling precariously to worshippers  - in the uncertain womb of the afterlife - vinegar Altar - heavenly tombstone - glorious sepulchre - crypt of dreams - frozen baptismal bowls trapped in stained glass -  discolored metallic tears the somber entrance to some of the Messiah's spilled blood - thus morphing to God in anguish - may only precarious pews pass uncertain - the burnt broken crypt is rotting - decomposing the baptismal thud - grey tears of some extinct prehistoric beast evaporate - passage of the Western World -

     Mother of carbon - Mother of God - God trapped in a fluorescent concrete age - God is not timeless - God is indecisive - God is apocryphal - God is hollow - God is vinegar -

     The tombstone glass is shrinking up - reaching carouse entrance like Mary - incalculably gigantic with colossal extinct worn body - putrid past - slinking through the frozen vestibule - past empty whisperings - illuminated remains - discolored metallic cathedral - stained twilight a prison of the Apocalypse - vaulted despair - stagnant dreams of the Western World - crystal anguish - may God only believe in himself -

     A stooping brass God envious of lofted stone - out heave reverberant golems of clinging decay there upon the masonry - metallic heat from the musty row floats past the solemn God forever illuminated -

     A trapped age - fluorescent not timeless - concrete figurine - a Gothic God - doors spilling beyond the mind - between row upon row of broken pews rotting slightly warm with the natural heat of decay illuminated by the faint glow of phosphorescence beyond decomposing remains of bibles - vaulted awe adapts to cobblestone screams seem to float upon stained beliefs of eternal Mother - color simple dreams - crystal floor - frozen sepulchre - stagnant beast - putrid baptismal howls - the stained color of the screaming cathedral - glass handles - somber dungeon - musty belief - somber sacrifices - burnt broken rotting crypt - baptismal  tears - eternal despair - some unreadable passage of the mind - crypt of the Messiah's spilled blood floats through Gothic oak doors - crypt of the old cathedral - a prehistoric grey God - frozen baptism - and who shall baptize God? - God grown putrid through disuse -

     Much more than simple hollow apocrypha - is that so - a colossal extinct worn putrefied body of the past - a corpse -

© Sartisohn 2003