Talisman

Windowed cathedral snag through which we once
watched the passage of the seasons from green
to white now though mostly fallen has yet kept
both its dignity and its distinction

of what's left near half is a single spire
that makes a wooden point in all weathers
to the sky, the other part is jagged,
a row of grey barked teeth, but half the height

what has been shed lies sprawled upon the ground,
reclining into rot, still holding shape
reminiscent of what it used to be,
so my mind, dissembling, reassembles

no leaves, no branches, no reach to sunlight, 
humbled lovely talisman of my time

I