TFE's Eternal Bus of Belief - Heavenwards This Monday

Oh well, not too hard this week. Thoughts on eternity. Which was too big a topic for me, so I've tip-toed right round the edges.
For the links to all the other ticket-holders, see TFE's blog, here:
http://totalfeckineejit.blogspot.com/2010/02/this-could-be-heaven-this-could-be-hell.html

Only one decision to make: upstairs or downstairs?


My Tautological Religious Soul

My father never coveted,
nor, to the best of my knowledge,
killed another human being.
Two out of ten, an average score.
My mother, too busy for sin,
only failed in respect to her progenitors,
as one disappeared with a French woman
after the War, whilst the other chose
to solace herself with any alcohol
she could lay her lips to.
In fact, mother was too busy
for God, save the hymn
“For those in peril on the sea”,
her brothers being naval men.
No religious soul, therefore,
came from them.
Perhaps my fate was Solomon sealed
by choice of convent school
for my primary education.
The gliding, black, Saint Mary’s
Sisters of Mercy turning my head
with their Old Testament tales
and Jesus in plaster agony
on every classroom wall.
However, when caught
in any misdemeanour
and Sister Xavier warned
that God would know if I was lying,
which was worse than the original sin,
I still lied to get off.
They gave me the history,
the myths and the mystery
but no religious soul
came from them.
Big school, and my Jewish best friends?
They gifted we goyim with an early finish
every Friday, so that they could be
home before sunset for the Shabbat.
But no.
Or bigger school, and the majesty
and martyrdom of Canterbury Cathedral
for every single Sunday service?
I’d rather have stayed in bed.
With Rick Wykes, actually,
a sin I finally realised.
So no.
Perhaps Mr Haji, our Iman?
The prayer he said
with every sheep whose throat he cut;
his Ramadan abstinence
which made him prone to fainting
that merciless month
until Eid restored vitality
with all-day death and feasting?
No.

I have seen the worst man can do,
there is a hell,
and my share of dead bodies too.

I know what remains
is not missing, but an absence.
We are more than we thought.

You see, I have faith,
a religious soul
and there is no reason for that.

Until we meet again.