Bordeaux Bay

Bordeaux Bay
Bordeaux Bay by Guernsey-based artist Tony Taylor

Sunday 19 June 2016

SUNDAY GIRL

I wrote this vignette whilst in Italy, which has an abundance of churches, but the true inspiration for the poem was an individual whom I frequently observed during my boyhood in Ulster (which also has an abundance of churches). 



A PIOUS WOMAN

She loves God: approves of no man.
Small face sour with disapproval,
she clutches a well-thumbed hymnal.

Watch her Sundays,
drop shillings in collection tins,
repent an absence of real sins
with contrite gaze.

See her weekdays, at the church hall,
organising the removal
of dead flowers. A pious woman.
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4 comments:

  1. John Buchanan19 June 2016 at 18:45

    I particularly like the line; 'repent an absence of real sins' , great poem.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard Fleming20 June 2016 at 13:29

    Thanks John. The lady I based this on was, I suspect, as pure as driven snow. If she sinned, then it was surely the sin of not fully living the life given her.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Julian20 June 2016 at 20:37

    How sad not to have lived a life to the full. A poem that's painted a picture for me; a stooped lady clad in faded black, with a scournfull air about her.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Richard Fleming21 June 2016 at 10:44

    You're not wrong, Julian!

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