Shadows and Silence

Cloistered but not too firmly

She haunts Saint Bernadette’s

A knee calloused petitioner

Fervently hidden amongst the folds of her three times too large

Coarse cloth habit.

Her shining eyes burn bright

Through the sung Psalms and when she eats,

She pecks at her food like a half-starved song bird.

She kneels alone in her cell

Groaning in ecstatic union

With the God she’s pining for;

Whilst her sisters shuffle past more quickly within ear shot.

The Mother Superior hides from her gaze

Is quite aware of her bright insane daughter

Longs to be rid of one who’s religion

Taints the community

With her strange fire.

The home she fled one burning night

Bleeding and heart torn

She only sees in bad dreams or in the silence

Between liturgical phrases.

Here in the garden

Kneeling and digging

Trowel in hand she suddenly looks up;

A solitary crow black in the twilight

Wings its way across green tilled fields

And for a moment freedom calls her name;

But for now peace is still found between the cold stone pillars

And the loving glances of those older sisters

Who know their God.