In
Guernsey where the ghost
of
Victor Hugo rides the narrow streets
like a roller coaster, we go to
Eucharist
at the
old Town Church of St. Peter
Port, discover that the Very Reverend
Canon is retiring soon, the
after-service
cookies
and tea designed to mark the day
in an understated way. We are
welcomed,
but reluctant to intrude. Later
we learn that Hauteville House is
closed
today, only a placard
outside the modest
island home where Hugo wrote. There
the
same deep violet wisteria that we noticed
climbing
the stone of the great church
shrieks with delight, falls fast and
violent
from
the locked iron gate
—by Mary M. Brown
Bio: Mary M. Brown lives and writes in Anderson,
Indiana, a Hoosier not by birth but by long residence and disposition. She
taught literature and creative writing at Indiana Wesleyan for many years. Her work
appears on the Poetry Foundation and the American Life in Poetry websites and
has been published recently in Christian Century, The Cresset, Quiddity, and
Justice Journal.