Reincarnation, an oil painting by Christopher Lane

ghosts and spirits felt but unseen
the dredged lifespent who shuffle in place
and linger in the in-between, unable to pass that final veil

pagan witches of old
daughters of the father of lies
those animist heathens, wanton succubi who lay with serpent

winged fire in the flesh
dark demons brim to burst at the gates, waiting
consumed with malevolence at the children of adam

the stuck, the treacherous and the hateful:
a most unholy inversion
a trinity most foul

the hateful command a thinning of heaven’s congregation
the treacherous conspire how to corrupt the untarnished
the stuck, ever envious of those who may yet cross over, oblige

how to halt man’s ascension?

stuck spirits concoct a perversion of nature 
apparent only to their own class: reincarnation
the twisted belief in endless circling to nowhere

treacherous witches infect the societies of man in secret
poison scriptures with sweet words
to calcify into rotten dogma

hateful demons warp minds and form
where the godsmatter holds weak
weak vessels of import to accept such blasphemy