‘A COLD STORE WITHIN THE FURNACE of the flesh; in the Arctic wastes of loss, a hearth,
with a kitchen chair beside it.’
The priesthood is a reserve force, in training for the great resuscitation.
Experts in living, they breathe in controversies, breathe out judgements,
poring over the law of the world – its terse promulgations, its cryptic
licences. Bodily punishments being no longer admissible, they invite
wrongdoers into a labyrinth of mirrors. Their houses bulge with tractates.
1st – The Priestess
Planetary chaos, solar storms, ecliptic dust rage over the Nile. The head
feathers of Amun are the consequent aurora. Sistrum-shaking, effigy-
burning, mortally celibate Aset, revered wife and divine adoratrice, calls
the greatest one to his meal. The sun god’s hand is self-creatively female.
2nd – The Priest Who Knows Too Much
Voices float in the shadows, on the silence. How like the sensitivity of
radio – a crime confessed for your ears only. Disbelieving, he interrogates
a wedding ring, then a credit card, which he reads like braille: exhibits for
blind heavenly assessment, in the court of inexhaustible permutations.
3rd – The Priest on the Eve of Battle
Communicants will drink black blood tomorrow. Known soldiers are
translated to the book of heroes. Truth makes the cross a roofless
sanctuary. Fingers trace escape routes in the air. The sky, raining damage,
is a counterfeit heaven. His flesh is the road, his blood the lubricating oil.
4th – The Anonymous Priest
‘Forgive me, Father, for I have forgotten your name. Can you remember
mine?’Anonymity, some say, is the open sesame of the heart. A barrier
may be used as a bridge, a thoroughfare for a storm of assailants. The
siege starts with hypnosis, which only seems to strengthen strong defences.
5th – The Priest in Jeopardy
He holds retreats in garages – the bag of tools under his arm is a folded
soutane. The vice tightens: many priests are forced to marry; or killed, and
buried without clergy. Laid out on his bed are photos of his enemies torn
from newspapers: he blesses them from the depths of his heart.
6th – The Priest of Track and Field
When two members of the club were electrocuted while installing a
windmill, his help was intuitive, authentic and sustaining. Most troubling
is the way the game gets a grip on people, hollowing them out, like
religious zealotry. Cricket chaplains on call rush in from the outfield.
All six – The Priest Beatified
A drone reversed in the air and landed near a rebel village with a windfall
of supplies: engine, antennas, fuel cells. The nose-cone camera had
transmitted a crucifix: a hovering monk with his arms outstretched,
forbidding trespass. Now we fidget in limbo, awaiting the second miracle.
♦
Introduction to Six-Way Mirror | The Index of Hexagrams and Cantos
