St-Germain l'Auxerrois
A stone figure gestures peace in a foreign land.
To how many travellers has this promise been made?
Above him, a gold clock counts the passage of time,
its cogs turning for hundreds of years;
undeterred by war, sickness or death.
Rules have been broken in this place,
but the tick of the second hand provides regularity -
comfort in a strange domain.
Reminding that time is universal,
binding the world together.
The building, still pale after so long,
looms over the water, though it is far from ominous.
A beacon of safety, it beckons visitors to pray,
its doors wide open,
like a mother’s arms waiting for her child.
There are those whose hands have done far from show peace,
stealing lives from time’s kingdom.
Yet still the stone man welcomes them,
the doors pull them into the fold,
and loving arms cleanse their sins.
If only a figure of flesh held so much forgiveness.
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