Religious Tack
When you turned to God
I turned away
and in some sort of protest,
a double-edged olive branch,
I started a collection.
Small at first: statues from catholic shrines, rude pewter pilgrims’ badges
light-up Madonnas. A dome of the rock clock. Then it got serious,
dreaming up lines of merchandise not yet realised by tack-merchants.
Nativity pasta, bible loo roll, pope soap-on-a-rope. But the dream
was just a dream.
Always beyond belief.
Like all those good ideas
I had in my twenties.
I lit a plastic candle
prayed for your return.
I’m still not sure
what happened
with all that crap.
Trelawney has been shortlisted for this year’s Bridport Poetry Prize, longlisted for the Winchester and Mono Poetry Prizes, and has been published, or has work forthcoming, in 192 magazine, The Madrigal and Amethyst Review. Twitter: @BenTrelawney Insta.BenTrelawney