The parish church - Julio Herrera y Reissig

In blessed silence vegetates the place;

The wax-faced virgins sleep in their attire

Of vivid velvets and discoloured wire

And Gabriels trumpet wearies on his face.

 

A marble yawn the dried-up font would trace;

Their sneezes and old women in the choir;

And in the sun-shaft dust the flies aspire,

As though 'twere Jacob's ladder for their grace.

 

The good old soul is starting at her chores

She shakes the poor box, and in reverence pours

To find how the St Vincent alms are going.

 

Then, here and their, her feather duster hies

While through the vestry doorway come the cries

From out the barnyard and the gallant crowing.

---

Julio Herrera y Reissig (1875 - 1910) Uruguay
Translated by Thomas Walsh

Source: poesi.as