The bright moon filled the sky with light

Only to be obscured by the city’s gleam

It seemed to set the entire world ablaze

And there was nothing that the moon could do

The shadows casted from the church pews

Extended across the room and out of the doors

To conceal the only secret corner of the world

With a thin shadow that could easily be destroyed

And the poor friar held his head in his hands

His tears dropped

Slowly

And he remembered

How his 16th century world became modernized

When his rolling pastures transitioned into parking lots

Filled with broken beer bottles and Big Mac wrappers

Yes, this was sacred ground

He remembered how his story changed

How it transformed into this masquerade of cruelty

How the injustice that could not be undone

Was only supported by ideas of failure and deceit

He remembered the girl who sat in the parking lot

She covered her face with a scarf

And would only peer through the holes between her fingers

Forever shielding herself from the world

Hostage to manipulation and chains

She waited

Until he came along

And everything changed

The friar was overjoyed

The poor girl had finally found someone to love, to trust

Before he had been ashamed

Because his so-called God that he worshipped, did nothing in the face of destitution

Even the friar was blinded by this shiny rescuer

Because even as Romeo killed Juliet

He looked her in the eyes

And told her that he loved her

Now the Big Mac wrappers have been replaced with cigarette butts

But the beer bottles remain

And the shadows still stretch as far as they can

Only to be burned by the touches of light

That hang off the edges of the city’s curves