Martin FG - July 14 16


Correspondence Address: Eleanor Martin, School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University 
of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, Scotland; Email: eleanornicholamartin@gmail.com 

ISSN: 1911-4788 

Volume 10, Issue 1, 116, 2016 

Creative Intervention 

What She Would Have Wanted 

ELEANOR MARTIN 
University of Glasgow, Scotland 

Polished toecaps shuffle, 
Politely down the aisle. 
More or less bereft, pause 
To take of bread and wine. 
Ordinarily I’d feel 
The blush of agnosticism.  
That prickling hotfacedness, 
Is absent this time. 

Like whispered Hail Marys, 
Words so often mumbled, 
Without consideration. 
I know them off by heart. 
But I still cannot fathom 
Their meaning. Schizoaffective, 
Acutely psychotic, seems 
I’ve been cast a part. 

The service trundles on. 
I cannot stand this hymn. 
Mournfully selected, 
With the best intentions. 
To all those well-meaning folks, 
On the bandwagon of empathy, 
Not every soul needs saving. 
Thanks, 
I’ll decline intervention. 

Preaching about justice, 
With diagnostic fervour. 
It’s different jargon, same result. 
I never have control. 
Can’t leave this place alone. 
Appalled, 
I’m borne away by six lads,  
And I careen out of the door. 
Cross me off the church roll.