The government troops came and took the church bells away to melt down for the war effort.
The people in the village had no tocsin for when the enemy columns were spotted from the spire.
They had no means of raising their god to come to the defence of his sacred temple.
They couldn’t call the farmers in from distant fields to come raise a prayer to entreat for their safety.
Nor could they toll the dead to their graves in the shadow of the campanile.
Both the village and its god’s passing were marked by a silent death knell.
