Sunday, 8 November 2020

a chapel in dereliction


a chapel in dereliction 


the chapel in need is now green stoned

down derelict black on dusty pews

fallen like snow on crunched slate prayers

long dead bereft the once good news


the coming ages dumb long gone

and god-only-knows the where’s

and the why-fors of iced bones turned

in graves where once lights shone


or shimmied off the felled bible stands

page numbers splayed and crooked lined

dampening forever all causes so inclined

where bare stark wires in witness strands


or doors so unhinged as to sarcophagate

that which was once heaven’s narrow gate

thrown wide now to the congealing wind

enveiled in moss on walls ingrained


in the devil’s footsteps how we hate

the run of time’s thoughts as if preordained

kiltered high where rusting time berates

our anguished cries in silence screamed

why can we not awaken from this dream

this nightmare that in timeless time

why why has all returned to grime


chapel so silent in an emptiness now 

with ne’er a thought with ne’er a prayer

however long your look before you turn to ask how

answer says there is nothing here there is nothing there

that will dare reply to you

other than to commiserate 

there there my lonely child

be still in this your grieving 

mercy can and will be mild

if you go on believing 

that dereliction can be 

and this a  new beginning 

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