Wednesday 12 October 2011

Death and Disappointment at Rutland Water




Thomas Bently Brown, rector of this parish,
decades dead, rotting in peace,
(Requiescat In Pace)

waiting for the last trump to sound
across this dreary valley,
echoing through the woods and spinneys 

calling the righteous to rise again
in bodily resurrection
to sit at God's right hand
in the company of the angels -


Thomas Bently Brown, rector of this parish,
destined to be disappointed in death
just as he was in life - 

here he lies with his wife
and other members of his little flock
below a proposed water-line in an engineer's report
and a gradient on a map.


Thomas Bently Brown, rector of this parish,
his death-dream of Judgement Day
thwarted by the Water Board

who will dam the river and flood the valley,
wash away the woods and spinneys,
dig the bones up in the churchyard,

then give them all a Christian cremation,
scattering the ashes to the four winds,
dashing their hopes of bodily resurrection.

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