A Question Of Style [revised] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

One suitably bland, self-congratulatory, negative man
says sensuality is forbidden to followers of Christ, so
no delight in sensual perception; colour, texture, taste,
feeling and sound – that is a description of hell

True believers shudder as Mr Non-life Deadpan-face
passes by – reincarnation of Spanish Inquisition leader Torquemada: “All delighting in sensuous experience of
the visual-tactile will be summarily burnt at the stake,

Those who hate being here and persecute others loving
this world gain entry into ‘still’ heaven, one purged of
everything, black as night, quiet as space - any finding
joy in this world burn in fire and brimstone - bodiless

Mark you, it is a question of style - for all eternity” only
complete idiots can follow such a religious leader, after
spending days on their knees wearing blinkers and
earplugs to keep out the evidence of five senses -

They’ll suicide en masse, purging the gene pool, we
hope; on arriving in the after-death dimension, they’ll
set fire to Mr Deadpan-Face, bodiless - a question of
style remember; and all will repeat the incantation:

What a fitting end for that evil gentleman!