By: Matthew Pullar
Matthew Pullar is a poet and teacher based in Melbourne, Australia. He has been published in places like Amethyst Review, Poets in the Pines and The Penwood Review. His latest collection, "This Teeming Mess of Glory", was published in 2025 by Wipf & Stock.
Here, in this
lab of gathered bodies,
homo ecclesiasticus scrutinises
every naked arm raised
in Hallelujah,
measures gap from hemline to
waistline, traces every glimpse of
pantyline, every inch
of flesh exposed
in worship, classifies each
order, each class of praise-giver by
the shade of bra
strap revealed through
wanton singlet-top for prying
eyes too helpless to distract
themselves. Each
child taught from
Sunday School up how Berlei
bras cannot stretch as
far as paradise
must now
taxonomise the heathen or
repentant heart by much
the same means:
black for
brazen, red for Jezebel. White
for pure. Clothe me in white,
we sing.
At home we
stretch our careworn garments to
their limit, find the limits
of their cover, of our
anguished, acned
flesh. Our pockmarked
adolescent striving. Where is the
Hallelujah beyond this
time of trial?
Save us from
this trial.
