ACTS AND MONUMENTS Poem by Sarah Howe

. . . as obedient chyldren, that ye geue not youre selues ouer vnto your olde lustes . . .
1 Peter 1:13-16. Overpainted on the whitewashed rood screen of Binham Priory, Norfolk, c.1540-43
Word from Ely:
the alabaster Virgin's
bludgeoned head
feigned miracles
tumbled twenty ells -
her velveted cheek
moored in an altar's
candle-strewn jetsam
was said to drop
a waxen tear.


At the priory's fall
its people came too late
amidst clamour &
cries. The glistering Saints
torn from their Sunday
height - each trindle,
screen, & tabernacle,
each tilted face -
quite slubbered over
- washed with white.


As Homily blurred into Homily,
Binham's flock
continued to gaze -
a whole generation
disobedient children
thumbed at the lime's
forgetfulness, hoping to coax
from stubborn chalk
that serpent's peepholed green,
a flash of wheatsheaf hair

almost as bright as ever it was.