3586. AT CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA

AT CHRIST CHURCH, 

PHILADELPHIA

Within this loamy surface tension really not much

is going on : people pass, battered groups of

Pennsylvanians idly seeking  -  either way, here  -

to visit History or visit God. Either way, again,

praise for something goes on. We reach our

vista's end so soon.

-

I walk away, off to Ben Franklin's grave  -

some adjoining graveyard a block or two

off. Quarters, nickels and dimes, proffered,

are strewn all over the ground; as if Ben now

needs small change for his five-and-dime.

-

I remember Ben Franklin's on the corner

in Troy, Pennsylvania  -  one over from

the Troy Hotel. It was a store, a chain of

cheap ten-cent shops which once were

cluttered all across Pennsylvania. Simple,

quaint, and rural; with really no more

to be said.

-

Inside this church though, it's real :

the pews are sedate and simple  -

no one joins the light coming in

from the windows and lighting

the white  -  but at the same time

no one wails in a black man's prayer.

-

It is all so polite and just and plain.

The generations of slavery about,

have they not yet left? And this steeple,

above, was built by Franklin's plan of

subscription  -  perhaps already a

white man's scheming early on.

-

And so I am visiting historic Christ Church,

and why? To watch dry leaves, just

now opened in Spring's fresh face, fall

already from dryness and death

in this place? Even Nature, it seems,

is here in revolt. Historic Death is

everywhere. Look! The girl with

chestnut hair is eating her Chinese food

from a tray; she sits outside, enjoying

the day. And, across, I watch someone

else avoiding a panhandler's approach.

-

With a story, or without? With a truth,

or no truth at all? A woman asks me, 

where is Campo's?' I answer I do not

know and let it be. Only later I see it is

not far off  -  a small dining spot. If this

is the tray of the Lord, then this is the

tray we are given. Accept this bread.

-

Ben Franklin, Betsy Ross, Elfreth's 

Alley, Christ Church, Campo's  -  but

five simple matters  -  conclusions still

out in this torch of a world. Five simple

matters, indeed. I am visiting Christ Church.