Michael Harlow

Ecclesiastical ‘body count’

On Sundays he shines
he tells his beads
he loves his wife
he tidies up the sin of innuendo & amen

he does not talk of his flock
or which cosmic hierarchies are mysterious
it’s ‘body count’ he worries
he weaves phrase & prayer for all occasion
my son thinks he is conducting

each Sunday we count him holy
hard, Lord, not to:
as non-denominational as wood he is ours
planning tomorrow’s numbers.

From Today is the Piano’s Birthday   (Auckland/Oxford UP, 1981)

© Michael Harlow
 

Comments
Last updated 20 March, 2005