The Chant of St Edmund the Martyr
Patron saint against pandemics
What goes around, comes around –
not all devils live in Hell.
What if I’m the breeding ground?
My soul is brittle as a shell.
Not all devils live in Hell,
some hide in every fresh mutation.
My soul is brittle as a shell
from birth to death, an incubation.
Some hide in every fresh mutation-
– this prayer may even be a host –
from birth to death, an incubation
for Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
This prayer may even be a host,
a germ in sacramental guise
so Father, Son and Holy Ghost
can breed the faith among the lies.
A germ in sacramental guise
to spread the doctrine to the herd
can breed the faith among the lies,
a vector for the virus of the word.
To spread the doctrine to the herd –
what if I’m the breeding ground,
a vector for the virus of the word?
What goes around, comes around.
Andy Jackson‘s poem (written in January 2019!) will appear in a collection The Saints Are Coming to be published by Blue Diode Press when all this is over.