A club night at san miniato al monte

By Claudia Vulliamy

Artwork by Isabel Mitchelson

We are gathered here tonight

on ivory floors

in the o-shaped hum of holy light

The bass is syrupy 

                               and dark, waking 

stark grotesques on every wall

We are gathered here

to move through thick air

not to see   or touch   or speak

but to meet a multi-dimensional sound

There are no words, just 

                                           thump hum thump hiss

It rushes through your chest 

then purposefully onto the next

So shamelessly it touches you that it is unperverted

without hidden intent

It snakes between the pillars of the basilica

echoes down into the crypt

It charges through the blind colonnade

  and the beasts who climb the church facade

    and the marble lovers in the yard

As the hot harmony ascends

and the pillars melt and bend

the arches invite you to kneel

Heavy with the altar's wine

you are lost, rising limbless

cowering before the sanctuary

at San Miniato al Monte