Exorcism

by: ​Apostle

He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. —Mark 5:3-4 (NRSV)

there was howling amid the gravestones of galilee,
no place for God’s children but
the promised land had been given to pigs
to be slaughtered, to be salted, to be
exported along imperial tradeways. israel,
after all, eats no pork. madmen,

criminals, fugitives—the names of
those who refuse to produce
pork for roman markets. send them
to the graveyard, those whose minds,
or shackles, are broken; whose strength
is fearful to citizens and constables;
who must be taught they are already dead
because their lives are a living threat
to Empire.

but then comes a dead man walking
penniless along galilean highways,
preaching the beauty of prostitutes and pickpockets,
preaching the treachery of pastors and police--
he sees the true possession:
not of graveyard sleepers, but
the possession of swineherds by wages
of lands by lords
of relations by infrastructure--
this demon is called:
DOMINATION—COLONIZATION—ECONOMICS—EMPIRE, or
Legion
for it is many.

but how to repel
the roman gladius when it demands your labor? remember
that those who live in graveyards are not as dead
as the blade that seeks to compel them; remember
that the demon is not in you, is through you; refuse
to host it. live in graveyards, break your chains, and
scream, may your screaming
drive two thousand pigs into the sea:

drowning commodity pork markets
is a small price to pay
for liberation
​

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Apostle

“Apostle” from the Greek apóstolos, meaning “one sent forth.” Issued into the world with the echo of the Christ beating in their hearts, the Apostles journey toward Kingdom Come in every eon. Their only hope is that the prayers aching in their chests might be encountered in the world outside their flesh. They keep faith in the hour when the Angel of History will make whole what has been broken; an hour which is always within reach.