Bernadette Higgins
Sermon to Oath
Twists like lemon,
twines like the apple,
sermon to oath and back
again. Adam to Eve,
purity to evil, death
to life, angel to devil,
naked to clothed and naked
again, intermingling,
intermarrying, TV
evangelists as their
seed. Church on Sunday,
drunk on Friday, drunk
on Friday, church on
Sunday. Malediction,
benediction, clear
addiction to right and
wrong. Sow one's oats,
serious and sombre,
separate and dried out,
swear at the preachers.
Drink to sobriety, eat to
fill, serpent to the oasis,
garden to Eden. Refuge
and shelter coiled like
contraception. Twists like
knives, broken pledges,
oaken oars, bladed and
steering, cowed by religion,
cowed by curses. Seven
deadly sins, a sensible
series, six serried orderly
behind sluggish sloth. A
string like oakum, picked
and recycled, oath to
sermon, sermon to oath,
so and so, and so on.
Bernadette Higgins was born in Lancashire, livng in England, Canada and currently Maryland, USA. Over a hundred of her poems have appeared in a wide variety of publications including The North, Iron and Orbis (all UK), Ship of Fools (USA) and The Antigonish Review (Canada).
Page(s) 89
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