Whited Sepulchres

[PrinceMyshkin]

Whited Sepulchres


“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.”
Matthew 23:27

There’s a back door to heaven
down the road a way from Hell,

a back door to heaven
through which the whited sepulchres
slither in under cover of the dark,

faces glistening
with Oil of Holiness,

chapped hands
twitching...

[Silas Thorne]

I'm glad you included the quotation here, it adds a lot of necessary information from which to view the poem.

The slithering and twitching remind me of rattlesnakes.

[a_little_wisp]

Great. Thanks, Prince. Now I'm going to have nightmares about zombies.

I kid, I kid - this was glooorious-

- and gloriously eerie!

-and gloriously written.

[Sapphire]

I had to read this one a couple of times before I got it: they come from Hell into Heaven (uproad), not the other way around (down the road).

It's a scary image: even Heaven isn't free of "whited sepulchres".

I agree with Silas Thorne: I'm glad for the quote. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known what to think of "whited sepulchres".

And I really like the line "Oil of Holiness", as oil can be greasy and a cover up, but is also used in anointments (at religous ceremonies).

Thank you for sharing, I enjoyed it.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I had to read this one a couple of times before I got it: they come from Hell into Heaven (uproad), not the other way around (down the road).

It's a scary image: even Heaven isn't free of "whited sepulchres".

I agree with Silas Thorne: I'm glad for the quote. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known what to think of "whited sepulchres".

And I really like the line "Oil of Holiness", as oil can be greasy and a cover up, but is also used in anointments (at religous ceremonies).

Thank you for sharing, I enjoyed it.

Thanks, l'il wispy one and Sapphire. The phrase "whited sepulchres" was a problem at first because I had been hearing it for years, used as a synonym for hypocrites, especially pious ones, but of the several people to whom I showed the poem, the only one who knew what it meant was an Anglican priest, so I googled for the origin of it & decided to include that.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I'm glad you included the quotation here, it adds a lot of necessary information from which to view the poem.

The slithering and twitching remind me of rattlesnakes.

I worried that readers might feel cheated of what these whited sepulchres did once they got into heaven but I thought it best to present it as nothing more than a snapshot... and I thought it was pretty implicit how they'd behave once they were in.