Paul Hertelendy
The poet laureate of thecolumnists.com presents a new verse
BERKELEY COMES
TO THE BISHOP
The starchy bishop came to church in long black car with driver
And his Roman collar.
Yes, he must have known he’d walk into the line of fire
By visiting our campus church most liberal and saying mass.His sermon spoke of “brotherhood,”
The springboard for our in-house activitist named Patrick,
Who followed him, though uninvited, unannounced,
To take the pulpit and to “preach”
That bishops too should treat us all like brothers,
Not with haughty trappings of their office.Clearly stunned, the faithful sat in silence.
The impromptu preacher Patrick took his seat.
The bishop kept his silence
Till the cleric’s customary prayer to God
To safeguard every one, from Pope on down,
To which he added softly,
“And our brother Patrick.”It was his ultimate riposte---the best and subtlest
Of his lengthy tenure we so patiently endured.
He made his impact, after which
The one-upped Patrick never more intruded on the service,
And indeed was, like the bishop, never seen again
Within our campus church most liberal
Whose culture-counterculture conflict on that day
Was never matched, before or since.
---Berkeley
©2003 by Paul Hertelendy. The illustrations are from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA.
Paul Hertelendy is a critic with the San Francisco Bay Area arts website www.artssf.com
To visit his website, click here: PAUL
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