A Church Was Built

Mustard seeds will grow, and spread themselves towards the light
Those golden shafts that shone down on us, illuminated our faces
We did as seeds do, and we bent to them, I felt the sun on my skin
And we praised it

Through sacred verses and holy texts
During cool, quiet days in empty halls
I sat reading, my mind a sponge to the knowledge
That I soaked up in the wink of an eye

Will we sell our souls? Did we even know how?
Call up the Devil, and let him decide
Spells and incantations, then invoke the dark forces
The black side of the coin, the hidden part
Of our very own: human nature.

From then on, as we grew towards the light
A church was built, and we kept all in it
The pain, the suffering was walled up behind
The walls of our magnificent cathedral

Sunlight gleamed through stained glass windows
And illuminated the pale white floors of
Our church that we built
A church we built to keep the pain in

But even stone can't last forever
And as we grow towards the light, we see our past
And to what end? Let's not wail and weep
Even as the church comes down and falls all about us
It will create a labyrinth, a journey of the spirit
Through it we will move and learn and grow
Further, towards the gleaming light of a setting sun

And as the night falls upon us, we won't despair
The church is gone, and so is the pain
Memories of the past are just that: past
They are the teachers of the present
Which will give us the gifts of the future

Sometimes I will look back to that place
Where our church once stood
And I'll imagine those magnificent towers
That gleaming light upon an altar of brass and stone
We sang hymns to the God of Pain
Just to please him, keep him at bay from our lives

And I'll leave an offering at the site of a door
A smoking incense stick, a bowl of honey or mead?
Perhaps, maybe, I'll stay for a while and learn from my past
Where once,

A church was built.