Ive seen Church

Ive watched Church

a performance piece across a creek from one of Californias original Spanish Missions

the drama starred a young man and a very handsome young woman sitting beside him                                                                            

and beside them the entirety of her family as the womans mother served a sumptuous picnic lunch to her husband

her daughter   her other children    the young man

then herself lastly

the whole while she preached  preened her daughter to a womans happy role in the Church                                                                                                                                        

she set a practised illustrious example

little sises keen to their elder sibling

                                                                       

                                                                         but watching I saw something else

I saw The Father The Son The Holy Ghost

baiting their hooks with the flesh of young women baptized in a brass cistern of blessed water

I watched earlier solemn ceremonies

womens feet washed in tinfolded basins 

  

who then bent to bathe the feet of others

I gnawed at the bit

I was anxious for the main course

the fullbodied baptisms 

                                          the nine yards of line  sinker    the sharpened barbed hook

the young man naked  his testicles hanging

her familys hands holding him fast  he didnt fight

they extracted his solemn vow to take her as his wife under Christian Love and Law and the threat of castration

they were browncolored and somber and the young man in his dark eyes I saw was convinced

I was convinced

                            The Father The Son The Holy Ghost arent fools

or to be fucked with 

   

1958,  Friday,  14  8. 15

0045,  Day-between-Two-Ts,  19  8. 15

lionesses

coming in out of the white sunlight into the deep shade cast by the houses veranda

he paused for a moment

                          trying to ascertain what it was that he saw crouched to the right of the twin whitewashed screen doors

it would take longer than a moment

he stood fast

whatever it was stood fast in the throbbing blinders his eyes fixed it in

when the white particles fell away in a lazy striptease he recognised his stoic nemesis

a huge bright orange cat

if he didnt know any better he would have said it was illuminated from within

keen crystal green eyes 

it seemed a guardian 

                       a fierce soul squatting on its haunches agilely prepared to hurtle itself headlong into whatever it may

it tolerated him

--   Whats with him

--   Her

--   Hard to tell

Felines  hard to sex while they sit

Shes luxuriant though

--   Shes my girl

--   Girl

Lioness is more apt

--   Youre really something else   Intuitive

Her name is Lioness

Lioness turned her head at the pronouncement of her name

--   Befitting

Youve fed her

She looks like she wants to eat me

--   Its dinnertime

--   So   Im the sacrificial goat

--   Perhaps

If theres anything left after Ive had you

an image of Lioness pawing through his bones snapping them for their marrow was appealing

erotically

What are you thinking

--   Theres enough of me to share 

No matter how ravenous you are

--   You dont know me well enough to think therell be anything left but scraps

--   She doesnt look as if shed be happy with scraps

--   No  but theres lots of children in the neighborhood

She wont go hungry

--   No  She doesnt look like shes ever gone hungry

--   She hasnt

She was the only one of her litter and I think no I dont I believe she ate her siblings in the womb 

Ive never seen a bigger newborn kitten

She nearly killed her mother at birth

It was a reprieve

She killed her later

her green eyes watched him but he was gallant and too intent on her mistress                

if he was going to be between a rock and a hard place he was going to pay attention to the rock

she was formed perfectly

                                           carved and shaped sinuously by an ancient river

a goddess body

--   Are you suggesting implying  Im receiving a reprieve

--   Lioness is funny  and wise

I trust her decisions

--   Decisions

And if she goes after me

--   As I said

Shell have to wait her turn

he didnt ponder it long

he smiled

--   I like your taste

1716,  Monday,  10  8. 15

2150,  Monday,  10  8. 15

(Sunday to Monday dream image of a cat)