Somebody Loves Us All

Poetics: Borrowing Bishop

Title taken from The Filling Station – Elizabeth Bishop

The pew is cold under my seat, I can feel the traces of wood knots

And prayers both answered and put on hold (they will be fulfilled in time)

The air is damp. Old stones and broken ceiling slates

It makes each breath in and out like a magical gift

So many people have been here – now, I am too

That makes me want to giggle and burst

Not cry silently into the empty font

I brush my fingers over the knitted kneeling pads

Made with so much care. A little dented. Much used

Like the skin on my body also knotted and (mis) used

Perhaps I am comfortable now, more at ease with my body and soul

Just how did I spend (and waste) so many years in the toil of pain –

What I thought was my work and purpose

Now I have to forge a new and different path – fashion a different prayer

Always knowing deep inside that somebody loves us all.