The Testament that Won't Lie Down

DONG...DONG
Deep sound from deep beneath the waves.
Itself a wave form. Ragged. Tremulous.
DONG. Muffled too.
Reduction by a decibel
would silence it.
DONG...Dong...DONG
DONG echo of the tenor bell
from Saint Sebastian's fine peal
and only heard on still nights when
the church bells call the faithful to
their act of worship.
DONG...

It's been like this since pirate days
No bells tolled on the night they came.
A full five miles the channel runs
from harbour mouth towards the land.
No sound they made, no flap of sail
no splash of sea, no voices raised
no guiding lights from land or sky,
no sound of berthing at the quay.
The meadow by the church lay still.
No DONG to say the bell had gone,
nothing to give the game away -
until four miles away from land,
and still within the harbour's bounds,
the bell fell through the ships poor floor
and bell and ship and pirate crew
were swallowed by the hidden void
now known to all as the Bell Hole.
D
O
N
G

So when the sea rests peacefully
and congregations congregate
to Saint Sebastian's mellow sounds,
when keen ears tuned to spirit things 
catch echoes from the deep... the old bell
answering the new...
then all good souls at home abed 
will turn in turmoil in their sleep
and dream the old still stalks the new -
The Testament that won't lie down.

The Bosham Harbour Channel from St Sebastian's (actually Holy Trinity) churchyard.