The Hollow Cost

[Delta40]

The Hollow Cost of faith
leaves me cold
amid burning books
whose cinders waft
across the tortured minds
of the forgotten
the slighted

Achoo!

Trespass gently in retrospect
as credence shuffles toward
cheaper paperback print
where words hold nothing more
than the pain of youth
subject to its loathsome history

Achoo!

When, they demand
will the wise deliver a resolution
so humankind is not doomed
to dance circular patterns
snatched angrily from the dead?

Achoo!

What odds do we play with
if tomorrow is eternally damned
to chug back incinerated mouthfuls
of yesteryear?

[Red-Headed]

Gesundheit! I enjoyed this. Mankind has no future, the whole planet is slipping back towards obscurantism.

[PrinceMyshkin]

The first couple of times I encountered the "Achoo" I thought That's Delta, challenging herself as always to be as impromptu and uncensored as she can be but as the poem went on I came to feel the "Achoo" to be an intrinsic and vital part of it.

[everyadventure]

The poem swerves (intentionally, I believe) between profound and silly, reinforcing the theme of the poem.

I found the last stanza awkward and would end with the one before...

[Hawkman]

I guess you're sneezing on the ashes of civilization as we all plummet to hell in a whelter of burning books. Strange, I just can't bring myself to burn a book, even if it's really trashy. The act of burning a book has a symbolism beyond mere disposal. (I don't count volumes on tax law, come the next Ice Age they'll be the first ones on the fire - lol.)

Live and be well - H

[Twota]

I had to look up the dictionary for many words, but I really like it, the first stanza specially. :D

[Delta40]

It was a play on the term holocaust inspired by an outrageous thread on Lit-NJet

[Junglord]

I just found the entire thing charming. I read with an elderly eccentric man's voice in my head. Glamourising the misfortune of mankind in a way. Delivering desolation through beauty. Great read.

[Delta40]

Thanks Junglord and welcome to Lit-Net