The Convent at Cape FuryA Poem by David Lewis PagetThe
Convent at Le Cap Fureur Lies
empty, by the sea, Its
ancient walls a grim despair Of
anonymity, No
more the chants of singing Nuns To
vespers, weave their way, A
thousand years of heartfelt prayers In
silence, drift away. The
Sisterhood of Sainte Bernice Is
cloistered there no more, The
end came in a fury from The
world outside, at war, The
Nuns were fasting, deep in Lent, When
soldiers came across To
find each sister worshipping The
Stations of the Cross. No
godly men were in their ranks No
thoughts of sin or Christ, The
Nuns were raped and beaten in Some
pagan sacrifice, The
Abbess stood with arms outstretched And
prayed, ‘Forgive them not!’ Was
taken to the courtyard where The
sergeant had her shot. There’s
blood still on those convent walls It
leaches out at Lent, Runs
down the walls of dim-lit halls And
stains the grey cement, We
lodged there late one April night Myself,
Joylene and Drew, Lay
staring at the stars above As
round us, silence grew. We
slept within those hallowed walls Until
I woke in fright, And
roused the others, ‘Come and see This
strange and fearful sight!’ For
out there in the entrance hall We
heard a weird chant, And
two long lines of Nuns approached To
keep their covenant. Two
lines of candles in the dark, The
Nuns wore hoods and cowls, And
as each candle flickered out Their
chant gave way to howls. Screams
and pleas then filled the air, The
sound of steel-capped boots, A
pagan army from the east Of
rough and raw recruits. Joylene
was in hysterics by The
time this vision went, And
Drew was praying loudly on That
final day of Lent, We
grabbed our things, rushed out and then We
heard a single shot, The
blood-stained Abbess blocked our way And
cried: ‘Forgive them not!’ David
Lewis Paget © 2013 David Lewis PagetReviews
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