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You Looked So Tempting in the Pew

Summary:

You looked so tempting in the pew.

Why must you look so tempting in the pew?

Notes:

This is just a little rewrite of one of Robert Louis Stevenson’s own poems that I turned into Henriel. I recommend you check out the original; I use a lot of its lines in this version.

There’s no rhythm; don’t try to count anything. This isn’t true poetry because I didn’t try to make it that way. Honestly, I don’t know why I wrote this nor why I posted it, but it’s here now, and I can’t do anything about it :/

Work Text:

You looked so tempting in the pew,

You looked so sly and calm - the silence that enveloped us.

I wish you were in my arms, wrapped tight, holding you closer than ever,

But instead, my trembling fingers played with yours as both looked out the Psalm.

Our only simple respite from the space between our thighs

And the space between the lies we lived.

 

Your heart beat hard against my arm, so close I could feel you

Yet still so far.

Your face direct and your attention centered on the man before

Us, the one who spewed out his own lies to those below.

I only wish you would understand, as My foot to yours was set.

Oh, you looked so tempting in the pew.

 

Your loosened ringlet burned my cheek

As you tapped me in concern.

I saw it in your eyes,

The way you gazed at me burned more than the judgment from above;

Though it was a flame, I would let my soul be consumed.

 

Your breath was sharp as it hit my neck.

O little, little I hearkened, dear,

With your eyes on my sullen and broken form,

Returning me from dust to flesh, only an angel’s hands

Could have such power to wield.

 

I was here only for you,

To see such a seraphim in his true glory, bask in his humble light.

Your eyes were soft; what then must be your lips?

Although the parson sermonised,

The congregation stared. I could sense their stinging disdain.

I am not meant to feel such holiness

Nor delight in the touch of your silken wings,

For Man and God were always to be parted, and You and I never to converge.

 

How do I spend my days without the light that you are

Is a pain I suffer every day.

Do you feel as I do, my Messenger?

Do you struggle in the anguish and woe that is us?

Or do you live in bliss, never to parry the blows that rain down on the likes of me?

I hope so.

 

You looked so tempting in the pew.

Why must you look so tempting in the pew?

No archangel would resist the sight of you,

So why must I, too?

When you looked that tempting in the pew.