Anchorhold
Laura M. Kaminski
Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest 2016 (view all the winners)
Honorable Mention, Tom Howard, Poetry
for, and inspired by, José Angel Araguz
I am confined
with time on my hands—
my anchorhold
is the kitchen.
This door is the peek
through which I
receive the host, not
from a priest
but from the grocery,
husband bringing in
a twenty-two kilo
sack of flour,
double-ott, a bushel
basket of tomatoes,
a piece of yellow
notebook paper
crumpled on
the table, remains
of a wishlist
and one short receipt
in purple ink.
Apronless, I unpack
ingredients
for the sacrament.
But first,
my confession:
I never wanted
to follow Jesus,
I wanted to be
Jesus, to learn
the alchemy
of compassion,
that love which
blazes, roaring
furnace, within
the mild smoothness
of the kiln's
clay surface. All
I wanted was
to have the touch,
not of Midas
but of Jesus,
to pass my hands
across these
loaves and fishes
and encourage them
to be enough.
"Anchorhold" first appeared at Verse-Virtual.
