Vincent Berquez
Greek Church.
This building - a conservation project -
Has a voice.
The women pray for all the men at home
Drinking and playing backgammon.
They do so smooth as chocolate
And in their dark clothes
They look like truffles
All in a row,
As if a gift to God,
Sweets for the Almighty
To chew over.
The votive candles
Are incandescent,
As they burn with embarrassment
At the size of their meagre bodies,
Angry at the enormous decorative
Lump of wax and cotton lazily
Discharging itself by the altar.
They know their lives crackle
With the illumination of hope
That needs topping up often.
The women seem smaller now
As they rise from polishing
The floor with their callused
Knees that yelp at the overtime
When they arrive for this wasteful
Marathon performed daily.
The young priest is enthusiastically
Bored at the discharge of his duties
In much contrast to the twitching
Dirty ascetic in his ecstatic state
Brimming with some dreamy delight
Induced by the removal of pleasures
And the lack of friends in his empty life,
He is most proud of his secret powers.
The sun is strangled by the building
And the shadows have dominated
Here for centuries
As the silence is a moment too often.
Page(s) 150
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