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