SANCTUS Poem by Jen Hadfield

the nightlight angels
the Teasmade angels
the radiant angels bucking

then putting on again the habitual clothes
the High Street angels
the battledress angels

the angels crossing their wings of tin
taking grid-reference
from the angels with walkie-talkies

the interleaved angels
the angels in reins
the angels with webcam stigmata

the mighty cog angels of braid and feather
the pivot Jibreels
the treadmill seraphim

the swinging cross the swaying cross
the rising cross of beaten iron
the angels with reluctant winches

the angels lost in clocks and watches
daydreaming
the angels doubting angels

the angels spitting breath
the angels spitting vodka sorrow
the angels risking juice and water

the thinmilk Bodhisattvas
the hushed, dumpling Bodhissatvas
the angels spitting beak-fed manna

the insomniac angels redrawing lines
the angels carroting urban soil
the angels letting the sky lie fallow

the angels retreating from the woeful steel
the molten chorale

the angels in diaspora