Elegy for John McCain

Say a prayer for John McCain Who passes from his earthly pain His eyes are shut upon his brow He warmongers to angels now

Beyond the sky, where sorrows cease He rails against the Prince of Peace. The Holy Spirit, full of love McCain denounces as “a dove”

All of the weak and the cowardly policies Heaven pursues that let sin subsist still Six thousand years of detente with the darkness In hippie cliches about “choice” and “free will” All the fifth-columnists, communists, peaceniks Since ur-commie Lucifer fell from the dawn John McCain pounds them, he trounces, denounces them Hounds them and counsels them: cease and begone

All of the saints and the hosts of the angels Run to their weapons of lightning and flame Their swords made of sunbeams and sighs of the martyrs, Their gossamer banners of God’s awesome Name, Their heavenly helmets and holy habergeons, Whose breastplates are bright with the light of the dawn; The Archangel Michael in malachite armor Blows blasts on his trumpet and beckons them on

Reader, should your weather be Meteors falling lazily Or if your neighborhood should seem A John of Patmos fever dream

Then say a prayer for John McCain Now passed beyond all earthly pain Not death, with all the peace it brings Could end his love of bombing things