Religion, ah, religion, that most all keepeth,

to appease His spirit with self’s given soul,

soothes, comforts and lends hope to who believeth,

that eternal redemption is a glorious and rewarding goal.

In all the extremes of distance, on our small globe,

and in the past when nations delved in quiz,

an omnipotence beckoned from a supreme abode.

Then, as now, queries vary, as what the Deity is.

Thoughts, so multifariously entwined in quest,

might meld to support a common and stronger norm.

Yet, unity is usurped by divergence, at best,

and the omnipotence is without a single form.

Through governed studies, historians precisely deduce

beginning tribes and societies, in some common need,

deemed various phantom forms that could produce

their mortal spirited bodies, and laws for them to heed.

In the geographical diversity, that society did range,

the Divinity transmuted to conform to environmental need

or social norm, and in whatever morph was made its change,

it was reconciliation to Its creators, who sowed His seed.

Through the voyage of time, the world’s populace increased

till diverse billions moiled over this immortality thing,

to best make resolve the concluding state of all deceased

and the final guerdon which their virtuous paths did bring.

On mighty mountains and wetted isles, in icy fjords,

and parched deserts, and all surfaces where thinkers dwell,

the conjured form transfigured, spawning suspicious discords

in distanced sects and united, in safety, the proximal, as well.

Whether multiform or singular in nature, this Magnum Opus

became the guiding dominance of the sacred guild.

Oft, deviate thought was deemed as heretic bogus

Thus, came laws on which the structure would build.

A common singularity, that most all evoked,

was eternal bliss for the moral and chaste.

But the communed sects were socially cloaked.

Diverse laws of righteous paths lay peace in waste.

On all the earth, from alpha til now, and who knows when,

disagreeing believers combat in fervent and arrogant greed.

Each intent on punishing those they deem in deviant sin

sans forgiveness, sans pity, sans sapience for those in need.

For what purpose was the spawn of this tumultuous seed,

randomly sowed without choice in a pestilent field

nurtured with tears and sorrow and doubt? What is the need?

Why, then tested by Deity’s temptations, then punished to yield?

The riddle to solve, with the given mind, is an impossible chore.

Contained in a finite case and possessing inadequate senses,

it impotently queries and fantasizes with reasons poor

and oft conjures Elysium while building on unfounded pretenses.

Yet, as each creation is presented naked upon this earthy stage,

it searches for clues in the script and from scene and prop.

The ever worn milieu gives no hint. No new word is on any page.

The old player fades and a new one fronts the quiz to stop.

Yet, the challenge remains in thought, in form, and in action.

In all secularity, it is but a flash in infinite time and space.

Why for the time or need or desire for the order of faction?

And, why give torture, hunger and confusion for creation to face.

If an end is sure and shall come to pass, a quiz will remain.

If the existence is Deity’s wondrous marvel, why should it cease?

To continue ad infinitum would perpetuate mankind’s reign

and continue the bliss, if this plan is love and peace.

If paradise is for those who earn acceptance through deed,

Why not all, without option of birth, be innately endowed,

other than imposed with the ignorance of a haunting need?

Would charity be greater given, if evil were not allowed.

Will this obsessive puzzle, without reconciliation forever be

and loom to perplex vestal seekers with tempting delusion?

If so, it is difficult for the innocent and inquisitive to see

reason for sanctioned inequities and bequeathed confusion.

A MOTH MOMENT

by Jim Gaskins

Hello moth, in thought I say

as on my pillow it lit to stay.

In interrupt from my reading chore,

my interest tweaked to know it more.