THE SACRED SIX by David Erdos

 

THE SACRED SIX

Select your special six with great care,  for these

Will be the kingdom, or court you rule over. Move

With them, as with cattle, from your front door

As a shield, to back gate. And yet in my house

I'll fall foul, as I have only the ghosts of my parents,

Alongside the past imprints of friends' footsteps.

Now, not even an occasional lover's shade compensates.

Perhaps I could rearrange my book stacks, and piles

Of CDs and DVDs to stand higher; collegiate in collection,

I could bestow a personality on each sleeve. And pretend

They're the friends I haven't held for so long now; a sad

Application for the recovering mourner who In true absence

Once again gets to grieve. Six is generous, then; the number

Of British episodes in a series. Or, two old three act plays

Placed together in a theatre that gets to successfully square

The profound. And yet it is also something to be enforced

In the home and in pubs and restaurants as from Monday;

Places which could then only contain those six people.

Would that be right? In shifts, maybe. But surely with not

Enough time for six rounds? I had lunch yesterday with friends

In a crowded restaurant in the suburbs. How will they fare

In the cities and in the villages too , come to that. 

With pleasure relayed, the baton that's passed chafes

Through holding. As if the cutlery too curled to cut us

And the sparkling water and wine soon fell flat.

In schools they can throng. In fact it seems almost

Encouraged. Indeed, the precious immunity of the children

Will make a parody of the old,  peer by peer. For, as they

Chattle and cheer the generation gap becomes Chasm

As from middle age we grow reduced and reclusive

Like a secret stored or debt cleared. Keep Mum

Or, shtum will have a quite different meaning.

And if you disobey you'll be fined now with one hundred

Pounds as a start. Police on the spot may even arrest you.

And if you continue then the fine accumulates on crime

Charts. The sum could soon swell to three grand.

This means they anticipate your disorder, and so they

Tease and taunt you and as the apple falls, poison swells.

The gravity of our grief for the world we've lost stokes

Imbalance as both God and man topple from the cliff

Of Heaven's gate to this hell. In which your sacred six

Will be all you truly have to protect you. Unless you're

In your workplace , but not a theatre of course, or a hall,

In which Art's distant voice plaintively makes each heart

Chorus and where the song of love falters when it can

No longer make its long call. If this is defence, then how

Can opposing trends stall it? Where in fact resides fashion

If you can wear dots and stripes? In the governmental

Rulebook, that's where, written while improvising, perhaps

On a chosen theme scored by others in a wretched

   

Manuscript of torn type. And yet it isn't even the rules.

Or even the fact they have made them. It is within

The application that the actual horror resides. That,

And what it precedes and what in fact maybe coming.

Which will take a good deal more than six people

To fight or to solve. Hope can't hide. But it must be

Declared. In a four letter world we're all subjects.

And as those brainwashing rules of three set a template

It will be up to us to reshape truth's cosine.

Generations, align. Mind the gap. Learn to travel.

Away from the censure and hopefully towards

Somewhere in which the sum of all our fears

Can divide.

David Erdos September 10th 2020

For more poems from David Erdos visit The Corona Diaries collection 

David Erdos is an actor, writer, director with over 300 professional credits. He is a published poet, playwright, essayist and illustrator. He has lectured on all disciplines in theatre and film for leading performing arts colleges, schools and universities around the world. His books include EASY VERSES FOR DIFFICULT TIMES, THE SCAR ON THE CLOUD, OIL ON SILVER, NEWS FROM MARS, CHANGING PLACES WITH LIGHT (penniless press) and BYZANTIUM with the photographer Max Reeves. He is a contributing editor for The International Times and maker of documentaries all over the world. David’s work has been acclaimed by many leading figures including Harold Pinter, Heathcote Williams, Alan Moore, Andrew Kotting, Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair in whose recent book THE LAST LONDON, David features. He can be reached at David.erdos@sky.com.

David Erdos

©    David Erdos has asserted his moral rights as author of his work and has full copyright.