The North Window

– On the transportation 
of the said window from St Peter’s Cathedral  

Dismantle the beards
and the odd feet, the date
palms and paned faces,
the urgent sky and dinner plate haloes;
fracture with care the bended knees,
dis-piece the wing-stumps
of angels’ shoulders,
the rigid banners and glass-stiff
robes; cut blunt Christ’s aphorisms:
word by word; flat-pack and taxi
through electric dust,
to rise again in the East.