Scaffolding around an old church

in scant countryside 

a skeleton encasing lungs and a heart

that pulsate more weakly now

at the wrong end of a millennium 

of belief and taxation 

birdsong and evensong

are rarities nowadays 

so a disembodied choir

of barbed wire

and its round hollow metal posts

murmurs low

to a congregation of livestock
 

a crew of crows guffaws

for they know all about

worms that abound

the marvellous underground 

its secrets to keep

kiss me quick 

kiss me dead