the intervention

the man lay dying &

like many men before

he was suddenly surrounded by an

intervening troupe

whose mission it was to make him

like them

“before it was too late”---

now,

whether or not “too late,”

is a measurable amount of time,

outside the obvious notion that

one’s death is one’s death,

all she wrote, etc. etc.,

understand that there are those

that believe there is a life beyond &

that there is a boogeyman in the sky

watching over us all &

torturing us all,

in that dual love/hate psychosis

which the

interveners aspire to.

 

to “protect himself from himself,”

to “save him,”

the interveners claim that they are

coming between him & the force

that he hasn’t submitted to---

“if you just make your peace with him,

all will be well,” they suggest

like a mafia don wanting a service

in the future,

capitalizing on the desperation that comes

from a person in dire straits

whose life has already been compromised

by an illness.

 

thrusting the cowardly & dishonest wager

of pascal, the delusion of “eternal happiness

in the hereafter,” and the possibility of

all the wrongdoings of a life somehow

being “forgiven”

 

(as if all those living,

breathing, humans involved, were to

forgive him as well, by default, for all

the wrong that he has done to them)

 

in his face,

these savage idiots put all their energy

into making one more notch in their

belt, one more “conversion” prior to a

person’s death, one more action which

they feel no regrets or misgivings

about---because “they did the right

thing”---

they “saved his soul.”

 

and they do so with an authority 

gained from nothing,

a hubris that stems from nowhere &

the audacity

of a fascist dictator forcing that first

will into complete submission.