'WITH THE CAT AT PRAYER'

By Philip Quirke

Angelus bells of St Mary’s attend

the domestic evening, before News at six.

Husband and wife pause mid-sentence…

quiet… murmur of prayer.

Julie notes the change; she purrs,

earths herself on haunches, front paws aligned.

Alert green eyes move between the TV images

and her housemates in their minute of stillness.

Now is a scripture fulfilled:

‘where two, or three,

are gathered, in my name,

there am I, present among them’.