POEM: Sacrament (1990)

Sacrament

Communion. Outdoors.

With the sun a bright coin
and the wind
tumbling through,

I lugged
days of diapers washed clean
as could be, to hang
in the sun
to dry.

Working by
scarlet hibiscus
and a lush mango tree,
hearing
lizards in the leaves,

I was ripe
for epiphany.

One by one,
the diapers were hung,
and I bent
and stood
and I bent
again

and a wild, huge love
for my daughter
bloomed
in my astonished soul.

Lizards in the leaves
and the wind from the sea
and the sun and the diapers
and Molly and me, we breathed
for a moment all together
in the whole of it all,

and each washed diaper
became something more.

I have eaten bread and known
it is Body,
I have drunk wine and known
it is Blood,
I have washed and hung diapers and known
it is Love.

--- Zann Carter (1990)