applauding themselves,
pretending that sound
is the call of the hands of God,
pretending so hard and so well
they begin to think
themselves divine,
forgetting they are as human
as the executed and imprisoned
whose pain they claim to sanctify,
turning down the sound
of their own frightened breathing
and covering their eyes as Death begins
taking all those they’ve demonized, as Fear
begins dragging all those they’ve targeted
and stigmatized into the Dark,
not recognizing that Darkness
is their own long shadow,
not seeing how it hangs behind them,
following them with every step,
swallowing all their perceived divinity whole
before choking on it and spitting it out.
