Walking to Lambeth Palace

I walk the paved embankment to Lambeth Palace,

past Parliament on the north bank and St. Thomas

the hospital on the south, past nameless

buildings and nameless homeless on the north,

past the pastry and coffee carts with surprisingly

long lines this early, arriving to find what looks

less a palace and more a castle whose windows

need cleaning. What captures my attention is

what looks like an old church, moldering

on the west end of the palace, and it was

an old church, moldering, until it became

the Museum of Garden History, occupied

by parishioners who look startlingly like

either old books or old plants or both. But

it’s Sunday, Sunday morning, a glorious

Sunday morning, and perhaps the books

and plants are preparing to worship.

Photograph: Lambeth Palace on the left and the Museum of Garden History on the right, courtesy Britain Express.