Within the Parish church of Buckfast, Devon, burned in an arson attack,
and after the art installation, ‘Anti Mass’ (2005) by Cornelia Parker.
After an age one bird does cry out above this place
one in a rush passing over the aftertaste
is a pull of breeze through summer branches
and me I’m sat in the ribcage of this gutted
roasted whale of a god house sat on the side
where the bones are shattered
Where all I can see of piety is a celtic cross
a crying face where charcoal fragments
ash and scorches have been air-brushed
the altar chapels and tracery windows
have taken on wildflowers here is air
and shadow patterns spaces for the unexpected
aerobatics of swallows
hate far off burned
another church a creator noticed
saw the black char as emblematic
ripe for hanging from puppet wires ripe
for hanging like an explosion held
at the midpoint of its moment devoid
of sound and weight dark light that beacons
beckons one to spear a thought.