El Bautizar Del Indeseado

A busted Eldorado with Texas plates
Halted under the blistering sun
Somewhere south of the Mexican border

The air conditioning failed
Ninety miles ago on Route 31
And finding a mechanic was in order

Pregnant, the driver found
Sanctuary from the heat instead
Nearby in a quaint little church

And rested her feet and head
On the last row of warped benches
Cobbled together from discarded birch

Exhausted in her flight
From a nameless demon of which
She could never get far enough away

While a couple of perspiring altar boys
Humming Latin hymns to themselves
Swept the floor across the way

Exhausted, wishing for peace of mind
She drifted into a heavy sleep
Of silence except for the voices

That in an unconsciousness void
Lingered onward to keep
Reminding her of her choices

They were chanting
In such a low murmer
That she couldn't make out
A single word

But the more she strained
And listened
The more she swore
She thought she heard
Them saying
Over
And over again
Was

Hatred

Consciousness returned to her throbbing head
Hatred
Hatred
Paralysis faded from where her body was laying
Is that what those voices were saying?

In a tone most ominous and twisted
Hatred
Hatred
Panic consumed her in a stampeding wave
As she realized she was someone else's slave

Her restrained ankles were heavier than lead
Hatred
Hatred
Tight were tethers cutting into her tender wrists
In anger she clenched her trembling fists

The bench was replaced with a stone slab
To which was fastened her bondage ties
While her vision was greeted by silken darkness
Of black velvet draped across her eyes

It was the cruelest of jokes to be played
Then her skin began to freeze ice cold
As she noticed dark figures through the fabric
That's when her terror began to unfold

When calloused fingers removed the veil
She let forth a bloodcurdling scream
For the flowered sundress she had been wearing
Was stained with blood from hem to seam

In the cavern surrounding the makeshfit bed
Hatred
Hatred
Was a gathering of cloaked figures continuing to chant
In oil lamplight around the body of an infant

Witness to what should be forever left unsaid
Hatred!
Hatred!
They dipped the fragile body in a stone bath
Filled to the rim with blood from the aftermath

HATRED!
HATRED!
Witness the Christening of the Unwanted!
A hooded man of Spanish descent declared
Over the unborn that she for so many months despaired

She wailed and shrieked, writhed and moaned
And none of them paid her any attention
But instead filed out of the cave of chaos
One by one without a single mention

Of the fact she was being left to be bled to death
Seven feet away from her aborted child
And the more she forced herself to look upon it

The more she saw the infant had smiled

It was no trick of the light that deceived
As red orbs emerged, blinking within the tiny head
Grimacing, it spake in a snarling voice,

Saying, I am your son, El Dread!

Mommacita, won't you please love me?
It asked amidst a fit of hideous laughter
I am yours until your dying day
And I will haunt you forever after!

The woman stopped short of breathing
Lunging upright in the vacant church
Knocking the wooden benches over
Loud was the thud of stone against birch

The altar boys glanced her way
As the terrified woman raced to the door
Bewildered, they shrugged to themselves
And continued sweeping away at the floor

Behind the wheel of the dusty Eldorado
HATRED
HATRED

Foot firmly on the gas pedal as she sped
HATRED
HATRED

She couldn't clear her mind of the overwhelming
HATRED
HATRED

Shouting voices in every corner of her head
HATRED
HATRED

All that she felt for the thing from her belly was
HATRED
HATRED

For the child that she never ever wanted
HATRED
HATRED

And from out of nowhere
Came a Peterbilt truck
Smashing into the side of the car

She woke up from the blackout
Still drunk on numerous Tequila shots
Her back to the hardwood floor
Of a west Texas honkeytonk bar

And the same damn cattleman as before
Was still urging her to join him
In the backseat of his rusted Eldorado

She shoved him into a crowded table
And stumbled for the nearest exit
Amidst tears crying out
El Bautizar Del Indeseado!

A couple of sweating cowboys
Glanced her way in puzzlement
The elder shrugging to his younger brother

Before returning to the task
Of rattling the juke box further
Hoping that the skipping record
Would be replaced with another