“The Devil's Chapel by Stewart Stafford

Spires writhing in audacity's sky,
Laced masonry's Faustian high,
The Devil's Chapel invites by lie,
Embalmed, a cracked stone altar dry.

The golden Madonna rises above all,
Lucifer's War, in stained glass, tall,
In horned shadow, the angelic fall,
Dark kingdom formed of a lightning ball.

Bartholomew flayed by sadistic chagrin,
Bones laid bare, devotion anchored within,
Skin in the game took centuries to win,
Gargoyles leer in the paying tourist din.

Behind the veil of confession wood,
The all-seeing eye drips with blood,
Trickster's snare in nightmare's flood,
A gift shop trades where sacrifice stood.

Pungent echoes in incense crawl,
Catacombs beckon entombed gall,
To witness ornate veneration's pall,
Silent to a martyr's last breath call.

Croziers rest in chilled silver's display,
As pink-veined marble taints today.

© 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”