WordsOut poems by Godfrey Rust  | collection BREAKING THE CHAINS ← 44 of 61 → | home  

A Laodicean estate agent writes

The developers have moved in
on 1 Corinthians 13
(a delightful period chapter
retaining many of its original features) 

The structural survey found
Faith, Hope and Love
inadequate for modern requirements 

The valuers found
that it profited them nothing 

The planning office saw
as in a glass, darkly 

The architect 
believed all things 

The contractor 
hoped all things 

The neighbours 
endured all things 

The builders
spoke with tongues of men
and definitely not angels 

and now it's done and back on the market
these three remain
Ambition, Fear and Need 

and the greatest of these
is never satisfied.

See Christ's words to the church at Laodicea ("you are neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth") in Revelation 3, 14-22. Otherwise the poem is a parody of 1 Corinthians 13.