POETRY
The Last Faith Standing
A poem inspired by Nietzsche’s views on faith
My faith is diaphanous like a house of cards,
collapsing under a roof that Nietzsche guards,
drenched in the rain of my unanswered prayers
and stomping in puddles of ink in despair.
If faith is an escape from the truth we fear,
I quit building a house that’s doomed to fall.
I’ve failed to keep faith alive down in rat holes,
when the roof fell, and skies cried for lost souls,
I’m destined to be sent to hell to think otherwise,
bereft of sacred teachings and sleeping with mice.
If faith won’t let me make love in the name of purity,
I quit joining hands for a prayer that goes unheard.
They light candles to brighten up a prosaic room,
and the hot wax scalds my skin as if to consume
every diabolic inch of it and build my soul anew,
only to have me reject their rules and be rescued
by the sole faith in peril and grave need for help,
perhaps the greatest faith I could ever have is in myself.
© Arundhati 2020
