Reliquary

Led through torchlit silent lanes
Crimson portents rubricae
Past the doorway
Three sided formed

Tattooed priesthood
Faceless, cowled, branded

Enter chambers heathen warmed
Floors engraved with ritual scorn
Rows of zealots eightsided formed

Heathens

Tattooed priesthood
Faceless, Cowled, impure vermin
Blasphemy

Apostates gather. Communion
A foetid assembly, nauseous faith

Judged Guilty
Drawn and quarterеd, left to rot

Godkin descent
Blеss these pale hands
Sweet penitent
Intone thine chants
Bless these pale hands

Grief-stricken heirs
Martyred lineage

Thirteen amphorae line the moor
Before me. Sublime, in clay and
Violet thread
Arranged in patterns of
Remembrance
Cracked open
Listen to these intertwined bones
Whisper a martyred lineage
Grief stricken heirs