Lamentation For A Grounded Eagle

by Henry S. Juhala
(O'Fallon, IL USA)

He was a tender life
Broken by ministry’s seductive art
Having walked that path before
Endeared him to my heart

Reconciled to selfless purpose
Redeeming years he lived in vain
But his life the church had strangled
Never soared as high again

Though the healing of each morning
Gave him vigor to face the day
It was annulled in lamentation
Mourning the fact that he was gay

His trust in Pray TV propaganda
Wouldn’t allow for understanding his pain
So another newborn promise
Never soared as high again

He curled up each night all alone
Trapped in a different kind of snare
Stricken by Falwell fundamentalism
Bound by charismaticized despair

To deviate from Holiness roots
He thought would indict Christ’s reign
So this master of newfound church games
Never soared as high again

His innocent joy of youth
Graced with accents of love
Bowed to learned suffering and torment
Escaping the peace of the dove

Once a treasure, fertile with hope
Now compromised the blood that was slain
To be secure and above reproach
Never soared as high again

Substituting visible form for grace
Inherent in erroneous prison wall
So crippled by no design of his own
Here the church must take the fall

Like an eagle whose broken wing
Was put in a splint to heal the pain
Until the splint could be removed
Never soared as high again

What was meant to be a bandage
Became bondage away from flight
And until totally unfastened
Never soared into the night

In mutual unspoken covenant
His talents forced to constrain
Confined to long ago forgotten splint
Never soared as high again

© 2011 Henry S. Juhala