Simon Barraclough
Converting St Paul's
There's no such thing as a Protestant cathedral.
We're sitting in Balls Brothers garden, gazing
at the pigeon-grey dome of St Paul's, which,
in its ample folds of Portland stone,
looks pretty convincing. So what do you make of that?
A pause. It's just a hump-backed monument
to the Empire. I think of Wellington and Nelson,
the Falklands War, the hidden chapel
where OBEs can get hitched. She may have a point.
I swirl my pinot grigio in the bowl
of the fine-stemmed glass, like they taught me
at Vinopolis. The dome that was meant to dwarf
St Peter's genuflects, submerged, in the heat haze
of pale wine, as if bathed in Roman sunshine.
We're sitting in Balls Brothers garden, gazing
at the pigeon-grey dome of St Paul's, which,
in its ample folds of Portland stone,
looks pretty convincing. So what do you make of that?
A pause. It's just a hump-backed monument
to the Empire. I think of Wellington and Nelson,
the Falklands War, the hidden chapel
where OBEs can get hitched. She may have a point.
I swirl my pinot grigio in the bowl
of the fine-stemmed glass, like they taught me
at Vinopolis. The dome that was meant to dwarf
St Peter's genuflects, submerged, in the heat haze
of pale wine, as if bathed in Roman sunshine.
Simon Barraclough won the London Writers Competition in 2000. He is published in the UK and the USA.
Page(s) 30
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