Craving a Brute to Shelter You

Having somehow escaped
A tyrannically
Abusive parent who
Loudly claimed to love you
While threatening savage
Punishments, would you

Immediately search
For a replacement for
Your loss? Maybe you would.
It’s striking how many
Poets, philosophers,
Manifesto writers

Offer their arts in lieu
Of a lost faith in God.
Why try to make scriptures
Out of secular arts?
If it’s scripture you seek,
Plenty gets created

On the regular by
Charlatans and would-be
Prophets with as many
Assertive answers as
Faith could possibly need.
They’re lying everywhere.

But maybe a black hole
Would grow more terrible,
Even, in its absence.
It just stands to reason
There’s something comforting
About a great tyrant

And something frightening
About the lack of one.
Part of you dreams that God,
That terrifying God,
Must be great, must be good
As your God, on your side.