Of Deer and Popes

I saw you early at Wembley:
“Like as the Hart
Desireth the Waterbrook”—They rehearsed us to death,
Drunk with youth and hope
Till the chopper brought you into
Howls. Holy Hooligans, Batman!

Among us you were
Joy
Before your Inquisitors
Silenced Boff
A hint
Of times
To come

You’re gone, now
Facing Death standing up
No heroics
(Unlike the ones
They insisted on
For Terri)

I felt the tears
But is it you,
White Hart,
Or saccharine nostalgia,
Or just
This Is The End
The white light
Down the tunnel—Hollywood and faith
Caught in the headlights?

Leonardo Boff was a Brazilian Franciscan and a Liberation Theologian who advocated a Preferential Option for the Poor which ran him afoul of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and had him defrocked.