Just opening, in the Blue Quadrant, “Wedding Tackle”
Promises to be popular with spring coming.
Certainly Mammon has had his interest piqued
And coquettishly chooses a Sunday morning,
Just as church bells are charming their faithful few
Into pews redolent of beeswax and wax-white
Funeral lilies, to go and pay his respects.
Actually, him being the primary demiurge,
Means he’s already well pleased with his creation.
Cathedrals had been a triumph, of course, with them
So obviously heavy with such a great burden
Of stone and gold and jewels, especially those gems
Encrusting saints’ tombs, and yet punters were convinced
They were heavenly places beyond this fallen world,
And they queued, actually queued to pray, so they thought,
But pay is what they really did for a splinter
From the true cross, a phial of holy blood, a lock
In a locket, an immaculate curl, certain
Cure for that universal malady, status.
The very latest, must-have relic, could confer
Sanctimony on whosoever was the first
To show it off to their neighbours: oh that spasm
Of pleasure made it all worthwhile; the pilgrimage
On holy days and the congestion caused, the queues
In the cloisters, aisles packed, priests giving the hard
sell;
But, what’s a little purgatory if it secures
Those sought after indulgences? Oh yes, Mammon
Had once considered those ecclesiastical
Enterprises to be a triumph. And yet, now
How jaded, how limited a cathedral appears
Compared with the latest mall, a temple precinct
Complete with ample free parking. Mammon’s amused
That two million years of human evolution
Culminates in shopping: blessed are the consumers
For they have purchased the world on easy credit.
How eagerly the flock flock to gather in jostling
Multitudes to receive the relics of fashion:
Shoppers, you have nothing to lose but your chain stores!
Mammon knows he is worshipped by such devotion
As fetches these folk back and back and back, although
None can quite remember why. And as the hordes hoard
Their purchases, Mammon makes his way through the bright
Slightly, by invisible inoffensive music,
To the latest concession: “Wedding Tackle –
The One-stop Shop for
all your nuptial needs”. Mammon
Laughs and laughs until he almost has a seizure.
Dave Alton
