18 September 2025
passing hymn
ambushed by Arvo Pärt
you wouldn’t believe
the sound clap all clouds at once
Credo holy smoke Holy Ghost holy
maxi melisma, anyway all phones
rang in heaven (being an old
fashioned place they still ring)
they rang and rang
and the choir swelled to answer them
it made the angels quite
superfluous
then big daddy took the call
and all was good, as agreed
a while ago: he didn’t raise
his voice or a tariff, he simply said
OK
and, as expected, everything
disappeared as in a puff of books
or smoke
which was on the horizon, I
thought at first – and growing larger
by the aeon until noon
when doom
deleted it