Southwark Cathedral Compline, June 26th. 2016.

The organist played the Ode to Joy
as the priest raised the sacred bread
to the delicate chiming of bells
and the awed silence of the congregation
praying for hope in the bleak twilight
of another dishonourable bitter day
devoid of love, self sacrifice, the simple
                                                  kindness
of trust that unites neighbour to next door
                                                neighbour
whether they be local born or hale from
                                            foreign climes.
Even the members of this congregation
seem lost in their private worlds of prayer
not linked to adoration of the Eucharist
but to some other, secret, fraught unhallowed
                                                          pain
of sacrifice and grief, of human separation,
the breaking of too many loving hearts.
No one has looked their neighbour in the
                                                            eye
since that turbulent rain soaked hate fuelled
                                                  Thursday
when bitter xenophobia fouled the byways
of colour blind, dear multi cultured England
where once we walked at ease and spoke a
                                                         plethora
of diverse, unusual dialects and languages
and dared to love our neighbour as ourselves.
Now I also am a lost, lonely outsider, bereft of
                                             name or country,
of hearth, of culture, a tangible identity
that I can shout out loud and call my own.
I no longer like this tawdry little island, it is too
                                                small and dark,
too full of hate and self infatuation;
and I pray "Thank You Christ for my Gypsy Lover",
she is so fierce, so honest, so despised by my former
                                           friend, that racist voter
who screams mad threats down my telephone
because I wear a badge brilliant with golden stars
and once dreamt that the whole world is my home.


Trevor John Karsavin Potter.
June 26th. - August 1st. - 4th. - 5th. 2016.