Annual Service

Ideally, given no responsibilities, no deadlines,
And no need to keep on earning money,
Lent would be a time of shutting down,
Of going in for Annual Service - we’ll
All have done 10,000 miles at least. The
Brakes are loose, and can’t be guaranteed to
Stop in time, especially at high speed, the
Steering’s faulty and I, for one, am sure there’s
Something wrong with my suspension.

Will it be painful? Are we so similar to cars
That we expect to be dismantled, scraped and
Drilled? Or will Lent be a kind of Outpatients?
Long waits with ancient copies of the Readers’ Digest,
Certain that we needn’t be here, doing nothing,
When all the time we could be…

Lent means spring, in Ancient English. The
Season of returning space and light. We’ve battled on
All winter, against dark and fog, and ice and cold,
But now, when all around us is regenerating,
We can look up and find, for once, that we
And God are going in the same direction!

Ann R Parker


http://www.stpetersnottingham.org/poem/service.htm
© St Peter's Church, Nottingham
Last revised 4th March 1998