Orphaned Islands (Un)poetry

Tall, deliberate, serious,
and solemn,
well it was church after all, and he
a senior cleric.
Reform is in the air,
but change yet to come.

Distant and alone, always looking as if
he was looking at something he didn’t like
or worse.
He didn’t live many years after I first encountered him
passing from memory and vocabulary.
Until,
after his death
death and reform arose in another context –
the death penalty.

A leading researcher quoted the deceased priest
for enlightenment and abolition.
The place of executions had been in his bailiwick.
it was his ministry to counsel, to pray, to hope for absolution
or reprieve.
And if not
when the end came
they often asked him to accompany them –
until and including the very end.
He thought “ no,” inhumane and unthinkable, so did.
It was awful he told the archives
it left anyone involved a shadow of themselves.

What brought it here,
bluff or huff?
Perhaps death, sighed over, lovingly
decision avoided,
delayed, stalled,
then boxed with the rest – like,
muting or looking away from atrocity on TV news.

Thrift: everything,
the shop
the premises
the location
the clientele –
looking for a bargain, or the absurd
dressing for necessity without means – school, work, sport
or
impact at themed functions.

Superstition, would anyone ? – either for real
or ersatz.
It would have been something it’s time
style, class, price
and distinction – still, even now.
Two dollars and three dollars for every on the racks
but for $9.99, lone displayed,
a sequined beaded, laced, one careful lady owned
bridal gown.

The 1980’s
big hair, shoulder pads, tight jeans
Ronald Reagan and Dire Straits
VCR, VHS, CDs and AIDS
Gorbachev and glasnost.
Deregulation everywhere, the stock market
banks, savings and loans, marriage,
marriage –
living in sin became partners and respectable
even the drug market
cheap, clandestine marijuana
gave way to proud, sophisticated cocaine
night skiing was what the parties were called.

But,
conservatism was making a comeback.
In our small town a fundamental church had a retail shop
selling bibles, icons and spiritual reading.
And
in the front display
a leather strap with tooled hand grip
and a quote from Scripture
“ spare the rod and spoil the child ”
the item boldly displayed labelled,
the rod – with a price.