Читать книгу Second Bloom - Anya Krugovoy Silver - Страница 10

A church in the East is abandoned.

First, rain and snow breach the roof,

the ceiling leaks and slumps, then buckles

in great plaster sheets, shattered and dusty.

Now all manner of rust and rot can enter,

weeds and moss growing between the pews.

Worms in the wood, an aisle of mulch,

an altar of dandelions, nests, and seed.

The church fails board by board,

jagged window by jagged window

through which bees travel unimpeded.

It whistles and groans, this dying church.

When a boy tries to find it, it’s gone.

His mother collapsed from the inside out,

her heart and lungs accumulating liquid

until there was too much to sieve,

and she told her grieving son, “Go East,”

not knowing the church he sought was a dream,

a cracked dish, a syringe of morphine.