John Ward
A Meeting in Nantwich
I was crouched over misericords, lost
in a world where griffin and centaur,
cockatrice, dragon, siren and unicorn
live cheek by jowl with saint and Virgin,
where men mate with mermaids,
grow ass's ears and a monkey's tail,
are fooled by fox and friar, or condemned
to cart a wife's spindle into eternity.
A voice spoke, close to my ear. A soft voice,
quiet as the rustle of roses or fleur-de-lys.
My heart jumped. There had been no footfall,
no sound of anyone close to my side.
"This is my church," she said. Her face
was empty. Something meaningful
had left it, and would not return.
"Do you live here?" she asked. "Not here," I said.
Her smile was vacant too, and fragile.
"If he comes back, tell him I waited.
Tell him I waited until it grew cold."
She walked down the aisle, left me with no taste
for wrestling men or pious pelicans.
The leaves had withered on the vine. She had
no cloven hoof, no claws, no wyvern wings.
Just something missing which would not come back.
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