Friday 28 September 2018

Smoke (September)

Listening to a parishioner, or at his September desk with pastoral lists (Ah! Spring!), whooping it up half-time at a symphony, he’d be smoking. After, he went out to visit the sick. We could visit the sanctum sanctorum. Erinmore Mixture in yellow tins, Peterson pipes in a rack, everything kept in order for slow intakes. Smell of childhood, curtains filled with fumes. Eugene Peterson’s The Message is not the world’s greatest Bible translation. Taking liberties is the modus operandi. His ‘Vanity' in Vanity of Vanities and All is Vanity is ‘Smoke'. Withdrawn to his study, he packed a fresh pipe.

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