Ararat Church on a beautiful autumn Sunday

I walk past the iron gates

and then the old church comes into view

but it’s early so I sit on a bench

under a sky painted a Dali blue.

Flowers are on each side of the path of God:

a rainbow of colours waving in the breeze and leaves

swaying with gold look magnificent

on autumn trees.

I think about the congregation long ago

who wander this earth no more,

some buried in the churchyard

in times of peace and times of war.

Now I must step inside this fine old church

on a lovely day

and hope that in a century people

will still sing hymns and pray.

by Guy Fletcher
Pantmawr, Cardiff