The Good Friday

Rolling back
The year returns
Memories
Of childhood innocence

Symbols grasping
Believing days
Whatever it was
Every good C child
Was conditioned
To believe
Else damnation

That singular Friday
That doorway
The choking smoke
Swinging in time
Magpies chanting
Following the apparition
Of horror
To remind
There but for prayers
Go I

Then the third day
All the pastel shades
Hope, joy, anticipation
Coloured eggs
And bunnies
Flowered straw helmet
Or scanty feathered bandeau
Perched or nestled
Above or within
Those fresh-sprawed nests
As new shoes
Carried them off
For an hour
Of ancient theatre
Then back again
To homely ham.

Days and weeks
Passing over
Good intent
Reminders melt away
Half-devoured heads
Ghoulish rabbits
Garish stone reminders
That cleaning time
Was most successful
And complete
Having gained
One more paid civic holiday