Alley Skyline

©Matthew Word Bain

this alley
may have no name
but that chapel
like an old friend of mine
now goes by Grace

layers of eras
evinced by brick
and by stone
stacks of plants
and trash cans
a ladder jutting out
against the distant sky

all this clutter
up close and personal
and there in the distance
overlooking it all
tranquil and resolute
shining and serene
perhaps aloof
lonely
is Grace

I don’t go to church
and rarely have, willingly
there is little along those lines
to which I have been able to subscribe
and there is something I always find compelling
in the architecture of sacred buildings
the way they stand out
in any landscape
anthropogenic
or autochthonous