Helen Harvey

 

Confession

 
In a tepid alley
trails a faceless vicar
hiding the skeleton of foreign fruits.
 
FATHER a God's house hears.
Here live worms, and gasping winds
like the rattle of a dry orchestra.
 
He offers safety in the organ and
Sunday choir smiles and
a grinning gift of chocolate.
 
FATHER FATHER FATHER FATHER
sacraments strewn in each tree;
the angel by the crooked lamp.
 
Children in which he lives are
cheap cherubim and sweet bones.
The south gapes white and fleshy.

 

 

Helen was a commended Foyle Young Poet in 2006 and 2007

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