Selfometer Poems

Free Our Children, From Religion

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Oldfield, Brenda M

Oh weep! For our children, so chastised, so beset,
So hidden! By subterfuge masks, and rigid rituals
So driven! By this primitive, religious mindset
So masquerading! As emotional, and rational unity,

Oh pity! The relentless Bowing! Praying! Dreaming!
Kneeling, in mindless obedience! To gods, stone deaf
Rocking, like shamans! To spirits, so very scheming
Toiling, wedged in cages! Of self-deceit, and alienation

Oh see this almighty, demolition! Of creative actions
Oh gulp as gospel! Infernal guilt, and self-scourging,
Oh hear such sorrows! Of delusions, and dejections
Oh feel, this smug bleeding! Of young minds, and bodies

Oh, must a child, be burdened, be so shackled?
With pre-historic thoughts, lacking guts, to nurture
Nature, instilling instead, schisms, to be manacled,
By nightmares, that linger, so very heathenish

Might such sins, not be expunged, by a wisdom?
Of this plague, infesting, the emotions and intellect,
Of our children, often cruelly, that who can so fathom?

Listen, to their cries, screams and pleas, oh so bleak
For such laments, oh, so silently! So often speak:

Oh unleash these veils! These burdens, of mighty duration
Our minds cheated, by sophistry’s grief, so tormented,
Weighted down, generation, after generation,
With dire religious, wars, and dogma,

For drown! Drown we must, in this sea, of ignorance
Our innocence, wrecked, so devoured by fear,
A commandment, a father of violence,
Spitting! Spewing! “Go forth, live by hatred!

Thus we’re forced-fed! Oh, with such bigotry
Not breathing respect! But choking, on this bitter law
Canonised, unrepentantly! In religious, indoctrination
Our beings, ensnared, misled, and bullied, oh so raw
Yet be patronised! To love and respect, our oppressors?

Free us children!
Feed the joys! Of intellectual, selfhood
Enlighten! ‘Freedom to question’
Protect us! From senseless, brainwashing

How, do we resist, the slaying of our trust, the deadly factions?
Oh how, can we stifle, these twisted flames, of fanaticism?
Must we nourish, our own childhood, our own affections?
Yet be patronised! To love and respect, our betrayers?

Free us children!
To live! Believing in others, so evade escapism
Enlighten! ‘Social skills, of communication’
Protect us! From the mania, of coercion

Do we seek, clear-sightedness, or submit, to blind-eyes?
Must we spurn, the art of query, this angel of confidence?
Should we be wise, or be spouting, the venom of lies?
Yet be patronised! To love and respect, our deceivers?

Free us children!
Energise! The purity, and sincerity, of our hearts
Enlighten! Creative, self-expression
Protect us! From demonic preaching

Oh yes! We earth children begin, with such gladness
But end up, day after day, with nauseating sadness
Nurturing our nature, unwittingly, undermined
Recognising our feelings, tirelessly, trivialised
Yet be patronised! To love and respect, our detractors?

Free us children!
Communicate! With our beings, not your gods
Enlighten! ‘Understanding’
Protect us! From evil fatalism, and egotistic, fantasies

Oh suffer us children, no more! Suffer us, no more!
With gods’, sexual duplicity, and sexist ferocity
Lurking behind, false frocks, and murky morality

Are, our baby faces, locks and smiles, so risible?
That they be, morphed, religiously invisible
Must a child’s, mere life, body and clothing?
Become the brunt, of cardinal deceit, and mockery?
Be responsible, for gratifying, carnal foibles, and treachery?
Yet be patronised! To love and respect, our tormentors?

Free us children!
Oh respect! Respect our dignity, and integrity
Enlighten! ‘Kindness and empathy’
Protect us! From wretchedness, and deviousness

Oh stop, the barbaric rituals, the daily intimidations,
The morbid fasting, the heinous, body mutilations
A wilful wickedness, crucifying, our sentient beings
Yet be patronised! To love and respect, our torturers?

Free us children!
Endow each child! With health and happiness
Enlighten! ‘Humanity’s wisdom’
Protect us! From the grim recycling, of pain, and misery

Oh reach out! Help us embrace, a love of learning!
With heads, hearts and minds, reconciled with trust!
Our nature to commune! With self and others, uplifted!
Our paths to the altar! Of self-autonomy, rejuvenated!
So gather these fruits! To merely, fortify our lives!

Free us children!
Invigorate! Our human potential, so abandon pessimism
Enlighten! ‘Self-belief, and reason’
Protect us! From self-destruction, and ignorance

Oh why? Why must us children, be burned in hell? So damned!
So painfully! So often! So literally! By fire! By bloody bullets!

So please! Oh please, shelve religion! To historical books,
Of aged tribalism, of sacrificed infants! Thus ordained!
To never fear! Our feelings and lives, bodies and ‘looks’

Hitherto a future! Shining with knowledge, by this tree
Of testing truth, guiding actions, speaking kindness
A life! Where fragile minds, be divinely, oh so free
The sanctuary! Of our growing bodies, oh, so sheltered
By tenderness, and security, wisdom, and sincerity

A life worthy! Of peace, of purpose, of compassion!
A life worthy! Of no more gods, or phantoms!
A life worthy! For each and every Child, oh so precious!
A willing triumph, of life, and love, truly nurtured