Child In Church

Child In Church

by David Lee Garrison


The sanctuary sloped down
to the altar. I saw
a field of heads and then
the haloed head of Jesus
kneeling at Gethsemane.
Pews were the dark red
of his blood;the organ swell
was his breath and heartbeat;
the cross, his skeleton.
We whispered the letter "s"-
forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us-
as if we knew one letter
of the sacred alphabet,
one sound we chanted,
calling to the others.

Even the Dead

Even the Dead
by David Lee Garrison

Even the Dead Will Die Someday~ Miguel de Unamuno

Bury me in this graveyard,
lost among farms and forests,
where even the dead are dead;

where epitaphs can barely be read;
where the outline of a hand carved
in a slab points toward the sky

and demonstrates the faith
of all the men and women who lie
here in the hope of resurrection;

where stones record longings for
a stricken child, son killed in war,
wife or husband gone before;

where my whole life will
come down to a few true words.
At dusk, a flock of quiet birds.