Yesterday
Parking at Mom’s
I noticed the three bells
Atop the steeple
Of the Catholic Church next door.

This morning
On Facebook
Appeared one of those random
Suggested-for-you posts

The bells of Notre Dame de Paris
In procession
Led by the largest bell
Taller by far
Than the robed men
(yes, all men -- 
Catholic priests and deacons
One assumes)
Lining the aisles

And now
Rilke’s poem
Of a bell tower

Oranges and lemons
Sings my memory

Synchronicity
Chimes my mind

How will I pay
That pesky piper
Dancing macabre
Through the cathedral

Piping my years
In notes
Higher by far
Than the smallest bell

Ring the changes!
Living is dying
Dying is forever never

How will I pray?
I do not know
Say the great bells of Bow.