Church dustbin

The Church Dustbin

What goes in here?
Worn out hymnbooks? Bedraggled bibles?
A screwed up surplice left in the damp?
The unconscious confessions of the congregation;
Sticky, stray confectionary,
The dried muddy imprint of a shoe,
Or a Sunday colour supplement
Let slip at prayer's end to rest beneath the pew?

What goes in here?
Burned out candles? A scraggy cassock?
A bird's nest blown from a parapet,
Swept up with confetti from weekend weddings?
Faded parish stationery,
A sad, splintered stained-glass window frame,
A fractured headstone fragment
Fallen to the ground with half of someone's name?

What goes in here?
Clapped out nuptials? A nervous sermon?
A broken commandment, spilled in epistle
By two former members of the Christmas choir?
Perhaps some holy greenery,
Some left-over hope that grows with time,
Some excess faith incumbent
To be taken for recycling, not yet past its prime.

What goes in here?