by Jacob Warn

At Pusey House

entrances and exits on a scene:

entranced by sober vigilance,

pagan minutiae

the wings – a hollow, chamber space

Mark me! Penitent face.

Stand, a side-long and, wait,

now in with lengthy stick or bowed head.

Execute all impatient not we who sit

and watch this play.

A play not less than Shakespeare’s Globe

one of temporal breadth

so in the robes of acting

a (smaller?) congregation gathering.

Peel now, peel. And

stop this, preclude,

Stopper, organ, stopper,

Please, your prelude over.

—

November, 2014, Pusey House, Oxford