The lions who ate the Christians on the sands of the arena <br />By indulging native appetites played was now been seen a <br />Not entirely negligible part <br />In consolidating at the very start <br />The position of the Early Christian Church. <br />Initiatory rights are always bloody <br />In the lions, it appears <br />From contemporary art, made a study <br />Of dyeing Coliseum sands a ruddy <br />Liturgically sacrificial hue <br />And if the Christians felt a little blue- <br />Will people being eaten often do. <br />Theirs was the death, and there's was a crown undying, <br />A state of things which must be satisfying. <br />My point which up to this has been obscured <br />Is that it was the lions who procured <br />By chewing up blood gristle flesh and bone <br />The martyrdoms on which the church has grown. <br />I only write this poem because I thought it rather looked <br />As if the part the lions played was being overlooked. <br />By lions' jaws great benefits and blessings were begotten <br />And so our debt to Lionhood must never be forgotten.<br /><br />Stevie Smith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sunt-leones/
