Congregants

Some among the congregants want to only feel poor; they want to seem to suffer. Otherwise, they know they’re camels that will bray before the eye of a needle. But they have piety! They have hymns to loudly howl off key! They take their starting notes from the priests, whose hypocrisy burns like candles at the altar. Priests love the poor because they are their meal tickets, and the poor attract the wealthy who feed on them. The lions lick the pews that smell like sweat and urine. They accept humiliation like beaten puppies. They idealize the poor but they are guilty as money. They pray to be forgiven, and sin willingly again.