John Paul
your canonization exposes
the absurdity of sainthood
the politics of sin
the mongering of morality
the messages and warnings
one might glue to a life
that fulminates in an elevation
as if the fall of communism
for the rise of an equally vile
oppression somehow opened
the gates to heaven
would you have been anointed holy
had you exposed your church's
depravity toward children
embraced the sanctity of women
the primacy of creation
there are those who witness
who yet prefer to assay
by seeing the man who’s speaking
rather than listening
only to the chosen lines
of his crafted homily
who refuse to succumb
to those who control
the present and their ceaseless
preoccupation with preserving
wealth and station
we all fall to dust
to smoke and
what we were
falls with us
the curious stand
centered in their refusal
to subscribe whilst living
to the determinations
of the powerful about
how the dead
shall be remembered