The Diagnosis

They took his proclamation

of enlightenment

as a sign of madness

and he was treated

with derision

and imprisoned

for his crime.

 

He claimed he saw the light,

but they thought he was there to shine

and they were all blind.

 

He was no problem,

but a prophet always brings,

followers with him

and that destabilizes things.

 

No one likes to hear

that they don’t know

and least of all be shown

they’re wrong about everything.

 

He was acquitted,

but was institutionalized anyway.

The temptation was too great

not to medicate the mind away.

 

“I wonder how divinity

handles psychotherapy?”

They thought he was speaking

his own special brand of heresy.

 

In any other time,

they might have listened.

In any other place,

he’d be a priest,

but here,

folks don’t take kindly to “The Enlightened”,

it seems to threaten their belief

that they’re on the right side of the street.

 

How many madmen

really do hear God?

How many sick

just see the world anew?

Who should we be listening to,

to see what’s coming in to view?

 

He was Enlightened,

but now he’s just a case file.

He was approaching life

from a place of clarity,

but the mind replaced the soul

and the madmen have control

and that’s what’s really scary.

 

How many prophets

have we committed?

How many holy men

are strung out on their meds?

How many times,

did we maybe take a savior

and place electrodes on their heads?

It’s shocking to comprehend.

 

HG – 2017