Dead and Bloody Man

In her musty cold house

a brown and peeling statue

of a woman

holding a dead and bloody man

on her lap,

at the top of the stairs.

In every  room

of her strange and scary house

the dead and bloody man

hanging on his cross.

In her big echoey church

the dead and bloody man

huge

hanging on his cross.

On the worn and dirty cushion

I knelt and held 

the smooth rail

high above my head

and prayed

as I was told to do.

“Pray for your soul,

that your sins might be forgiven”

she said.

But I prayed

“Please God, 

save me

from

the dead and bloody man.”