a white village

Sleepy village

The white village has a small church
also white and wonderful
only open for mass, weddings
and funerals
Post-card pretty set in a landscape
by a Van Gogh 
Poppies and olive trees shimmer above
ground, in the afternoon heat
I saw the priest drink whisky and lit 
a cigarette while leafing through
a two-month-old Vatican circular 
People live long here, when they die
do so in groups of five or six
going on a long journey together 
They lived too long for any tears to fall
Every day in this village has a golden
sense of yesterday