– for Fr. David Convertino, O.F.M.
A homeless woman with gold in her purse
pulls out a batch of striped sunflower seeds
and scatters them around the bench
where she is resting at Frisco State Park
on this afternoon when the sun is at its fullest.
The birds come, first one or two, swooping and swirling,
and then more of their brown winged brotherhood
join them creating frescoes on a canvas of air,
then land, pecking like starved gleaners in the soft soil
and the comforting grass near her outdoor pew.
Digging in her purse, she grabs more seeds and throws them
everywhere like so many ripe fields
bursting into a harvest of little songs. She has not eaten
today but her soul has dined on holiness.
When her purse is empty, the birds fly away, chirping
with Angelus bells ringing, while only a few blocks away
a bronzed, smiling St. Francis welcomes his confreres
back home filled with peace and goodness.
Philip C. Kolin is the Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus and Editor Emeritus of the Southern Quarterly at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has published more than 40 books on Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams as well as fifteen collections of poetry, among them Benedict’s Daughter: Poems (Wipf and Stock, 2017), Wholly God’s: Poems (Wind and Water Press, 2021), Mapping Trauma: Poems about Black History (Third World Press, 2023), andEvangeliaries: Poems (New York: Angelico, 2024).