Alice, The Anchoress’s Girl

My mistress Julian cannot see the sky.
But when days stretch long
Sun flickers through her cell
Like herring scales.

My mistress Julian cannot feel the rain.
But when crowds ebb home
Bells still, light falls, rain rolls
Down eaves like tears.

My mistress Julian cannot catch the wind.
When she writes of His love
Cold burns fingers, breaks quill
She blows, stops, starts.

My mistress Julian cannot bring them back.
But when she prays, clasps palms
I see their small souls quiver
Feel hands, hot breath.

My mistress Julian cannot save me.
But I want to tell her
Living under holed, wide sky
Pulls my soul’s threads bare.

My mistress Julian cannot see my world.
But I want to tell her
That when she says
‘Alle shalle be wele’,

That when she says
‘Alle maner of thynge
Shalle be wele’,

That when she says
‘Alle shalle be wele’,
I want to tell her
That it stitches me whole.

Elen Lewis

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