Father Matthew offers the Mass alone
to an empty house
lifting bread to heaven for us
as we wait at home for the all-clear
but it’s not the same.
In his mind he hears our shuffling shoes
sees us straggling in from the streets
homing instincts drawing us in
to be lifted into the holy.
God’s chronic hope is a full house
evergreen children crowding in
banging the tables and asking for more
of all he gives.
Meanwhile
Father Matthew waits at the door
watching the sky
holding the keys.
E.P. Cowley lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she works as director of a small after-school program for at-risk children. She is author of the novel Closing Accounts, and Ordinary Sea, a book of poems used by her local parish during Lent and the Easter Octave. To read more of her work, visit https://www.greenhillsrising.com.