Evensong, Durham Cathedral
you preferred churches
temples were too noisy
too many colours
you were happier
in the stillness of stone
in the echo of an arch
I’m not one to track anniversaries
but I’ve lit a candle for you
in churches all over the world
now in the ether of a cathedral
I watch a small boy
dressed in purple robes
face tilted with wonder
treble notes falling soft as twilight
he bears your name as one of his own
a grandchild one of four
you never met
Amaleena Damlé is a poet and an academic literary critic, who lives in Durham. She writes scholarly and creative pieces about bodies and beings, and has poems in After…, Dreich, IceFloe Press, The French Literary Review and Sarasvati.
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