Te Deum

(vem)

in the screen
that filters
that shelters
us
from stories
we tell
we once
told
those catholic
we learned
did hold
the hand
that forgives
flies and other insects
sometimes clung
were they too
blessed
when those bells
above
were rung?
was it mean
there to hang
on wings
on legs
the truth
and fib
between
what we yearned
and what we learned?
did they fail
before that rail
to raise in buzzing
to praise that missing
god?
Was it no truth
was it only a lie
that separated
us
the priest
and the fly?

T.P. Wilkinson, Dr. rer. pol. writes, teaches History and English, directs theatre and coaches cricket between the cradles of Heine and Saramago. He is author of Unbecoming American: A War Memoir and also Church Clothes, Land, Mission and the End of Apartheid in South Africa. Read other articles by T.P..