She’s in love with a new preacher: 
 a chaste charismatic angel, 
 young and full of the Lord’s fire. 
 His is a life she longs to claim — 
 a mortal life promised to eternity, 
 a mortal life repulsed by carnality. 
 She knows this, 
 but it doesn’t stop her. 
  
 She’s in love with a retired preacher: 
 an agèd charismatic angel 
 who upheld his vows of chastity. 
 Her glance persisted as the years passed — 
 the years she followed his every goal, 
 the years he saw only a loyal soul. 
 She knows this, 
 but it doesn’t stop her. 
  
 She’s in love with a dead preacher: 
 a bloodless body lying on the floor, 
 an unclaimed heart now cold and hers, 
 and the pyre is ready, and he cannot refuse — 
 the pyre to which she steals him away, 
 the pyre that will summon a deathly lay. 
 She knows this, 
 and it doesn’t stop her.