healing

    by Janet Sunderland

special grace gathers

shattered fragments

blows away the dust

and glues the edges with words - 

a seam - even if marred -

and the vessel holds water again

the old ones knew words were magic

chanted liturgies

rolled down temple steps

floods of words to hold the vessels whole

and deny the stones that could shatter

still they did shatter -

long ago a woman raised her arms

prayed to heal a heart

wounded - touched a stone face

rubbed smooth by countless fingers - waiting

for the miracle of grace

shadow arms lift mine

cup my upraised palms

twenty fingers - 10 of flesh

10 of shadow

sieve the broken language

for that one crystal word

refusing to dissolve

© 2010 Janet Sunderland

Janet Sunderland lives in Kansas City with her husband Cliff Kroski. Her work has appeared in The Writer, KC Voices, The Rockhurst Review, Lalitamba, theotherjournal.com, Imago Dei, and others. She’s an instructor at Avila University and Longview Community College and is completing a spiritual memoir, Standing at the Crossroad.