‘Standing in St. Andrews Cathedral, Hearing Only the Faint Hiss of Waves’

Ella Pringle

i’m standing where only god 

and the priests go. 

Under the feet  

of slatted glass stained. 

 

This part of the day 

is where the sun glories  

at the top of the crosses 

—it doesn’t spear through either side  

of this lean fish’s eyes 

 

—light fingers don’t wrap, 

around plate-glass gills, 

expanding chamber chest 

where the fish’s jaw locks open 

paltry bubbles of conversation frothing  

at the corners of its mouth. 

 

No more men  

with tuning forks in their throats, 

rounding the sandstone 

with powerful voices 

 

—pillars that prop up  

a long curve spine.  

This bony creature’s insides 

settling on each stacked vertebra 

with hard collapse  

that breath 

pushed to finish, 

expels figures in a prehistoric gape. 

 

Not me,  

i relish the cold stone gut, 

empty of people rubbing faith between their hands, 

this structure only echoes 

great stiff-boned fish! 

 

And i could really hear him now, 

if he chose to speak 

standing far behind the alter 

where candles don’t reach… 

 

Empty, 

only the silver valves of its organ  

heart sift  

the air disturbed by god 

 

who simply flexes his bony feet on my scalp 

like a child working toes into sand. 

Author: Ella Pringle

Ella Pringle is a writer and creative professional living in Brisbane/Meanjin, and completely tertiary studies in the field of creative writing. Her short stories and poetry have been read aloud for TEDx, the QUT Literary Salon, and local Brisbane exhibitions. She’s also been published by Whynot.org, Glass Magazine, and ScratchThat Magazine, among others, in written form. Currently completing a series of short stories around the absence of social connective norms, Ella looks forward to the opportunity for further studies in the field.

Artist: Ella Pringle

Edited by: Nyah Marsden and Lara Madeline Rand

Editors: Coco Thompson and Tia Shang