Unfinished Cathedral in the Park - Andrew Martin

Unfinished Cathedral in the Park
Andrew Martin

Mutley Park, 3rd April 2021

From winters shattered bones
you constructed a tiny
unfinished cathedral
feather for a font
a magnolia petal
the stretched sacrament
blushed with Spring's blood
a crow the choir
a congregation of primroses
lift the gamma glow
of their radioactive faces
stare at the fractured sky
bluebells bow
heads heavy
with the blue smoke
from their expired thoughts
out of sight
as they swing on the swings
the incense of children's cries
streaming behind them
like the spirits of scarves
resisting the fade
​
today I still see it there
in the abandoned park
delicate
as if made from the bones
from the inner ear
or blackbird bones
song still echoing
through their thin tunnels
an inverted shipwreck
its slight arches
rising from the soil
no ceiling for prayers
to curl and sink against
a fallen nest
upturned
still a home
the bowl
has become a cave
I shrunk and danced
around the gold ghost
of the fire inside