Screen

No prayers, no Masses, no good works,

Just suffering carefully examined;

I see Christ in every cheap action film,

The Madonna on billboards and magazine covers.

Pontius Pilate with a remote control,

I restlessly change channels.

My eyes accept the sacrament:

Incarnations within a screen.


Pictures reunite me with the world,

Re-acquaint me with myself.

I have sensed God more in cinemas than churches.

Can I overcome superstition,

Transcend idolatry?


I am here to bear witness.

To prepare a revelation in the dark.

An oracular object is presented to me:

The head of John the Baptist,

Orpheus,

Hussein.

I allow the darkness power over me

For what it may teach me

In exultation and hurt.


What is eternal life

If not this instant now,

Before and behind the screen?

All that remains of my rational world

Is these images, these signs.