YUH RAP SO (0.5)

 

            
           Habitat:  no longer the convent, white, near
           Their seawall complete with statues of Mary
          (With + without her Son on or off the Cross)
           Beside a stone-mammoth’s pagan proboscis
           Curled upwards to serve as a dribbling fountain
           Near the path from the white front-door to the chains
           That ensured the high-black-iron front-gate stayed
           Locked to keep in guard-dogs + keep out all strays
           So that the holy Sisters could go about
           Their day’s duties + their evening-prayers with not
           Too much anxiety over their safety:

        + Habitat:   now a clearing in the country,    
           Or what town-mouse Dilys used to call the bush
           Even though calendar-photos would give much
           Vivid witness of is wide open spaces,
           The Bush’s twin-fiction spawned by villagers
           Trapped in cities homesick for lost horizons
           Of innocent Noble Savage abandon:
           That the savages here in their ordered space
           Were still called bucks – huntable, although their spears
           Pointed to their being genuine hunters –
           Didn’t much concern the otherwise fair nun

        (from “Raponani”, a verse novel by Brian Chan, 2023)