At the rear of the church the hobo has a smoke
And lounges ‘gainst a portrait of Mary.
A latecomer creeps in like an oversized fairy
Tiptoeing through a foreign land.
And the people just don’t understand,
What they see before their eyes,
They sit listening to the righteous lies
Of the priest who cannot sin.
The small child reads her book in the Lady chapel
The schoolgirl sits disinterested munching her apple
Whilst the priest sings his liturgy in Latin
Dressed like a woman in his robes of violet satin.
The altar boy swings his incense;
But the pious deeds are nonsense
To the blank minded fools who look
At the prophet preaching from his holy book
He’s the priest who cannot sin.
The lady from No. 26 looks disgusted at her son
Who thinking now just how he could use his gun
To rid the people of that voice from above.
And the gent in the corner sits fiddling with his glove
Looking at the girl opposite, wanting to whistle.
Meanwhile the parson finishes his epistle,
Then starts his sermon about the state of the nation,
His dreary speech to a bored congregation
Who listen to the priest who cannot sin.
The man in from the pub just over the road
Sits in his pew moaning at the load
Of old rubbish that the priest is saying
Then a twelfth century organ starting playing
Its morbid moaning march of death
The bishop’s message of righteous breath
Is read from the richly robed altar
His voice is clear and does not falter
He’s the priest who cannot sin.
Girls who talk at the back of the church
Peer sarcastically at the priest on his perch
Of golden cloth from eastern lands.
They watch him wet his holy hands
With water that he says is blessed,
And then as he genuflects
They giggle with their boyfriends
Peace to all, the verger sends
He’s the priest who cannot sin
Why do these people go to this place
To hear hypocrisy dressed in lace,
And see drink his wine and call it blood
Do they go because they think it’s good
To be seen there, like going to the Ritz
They’d rather be somewhere else; hypocrites!
Most are there to meet their friends
They’re just religious at week ends
They’re ‘Christians’ who cannot sin.
©Rosewing
