the total cost

to those struggling to stay afloat,
performing that ever-amusing
balancing act, standing on the raft
of dwindling “faith,” while the river
of rationality, science & reason
continues without pause
to flow stronger than
ever down below---
that is, when you look at the age
range of folks dropping out
of the cesspool of organized
religion here in the belly of the
empire, one finds finally
that “the belief in the existence of
god has dropped 15 points in the
last five years among americans
30 and under”---so as age
drops, so does the willful wading in
bullshit &
so for those still standing on the
raft, refusing to learn how to swim,
refusing to give up on writing off
everything in this world for a better
one after they die,
what will be the total
cost, when that last bit of
belief falls through the fingers
once comfortably held “praying”
in silent desperation?
when the one changing your diapers
doesn’t feel like wheeling you down
to the church, because s/he doesn’t
see the point, how long will it take
you to figure out just how much of
the energy in your life, just how many
years (that you’ll never get back)
you wasted on these fantasies
dreamt up by people who refused to
allow the education of the women
they traded like cattle, who thought
the earth was flat like a sheet of
paper & who felt that bloodletting might
be the proper way of getting rid of
a stomach bug?