Biblical Double Bind

If love is both our highest virtue and
The way that Satan gets beneath our skin;
If Christian agape is strict command,
But carnal love (or thought of it!) is sin;
No wonder that we're hopelessly perplexed.
We cannot conjure love by acts of will,
We're ever underloved and oversexed,
While basic human needs we seek to fill
Are buried deep in sanctimonious shame.

Beseeching absolution from God's wrath,
Entrained by currents that we dare not name,
We want for light to seek the blessed path
That never one alone but only two
Can see -- So, may I have this dance with you?

-- JJM, #54 in the I Ching Sonnet Project
Gui Mei