Now Thank We All

Now Thank We All


Rural Charge

Richard arrived ninety minutes early.
There had been some difficulty
Starting up the old Chev.
First frost on the glass.
Heater rudely whining
At season’s change.

Samantha busy in the back
Preparing Communion’s elements.
Pew upon pew checked
For hymnals and print-outs
On their mission relief challenge.
Bibles waiting, as always.

Truck noise in the lot
Announcing Harry, Sam and Art.
The hardware store.
The dairy farm.
The township office.
Come to welcome and worship.

Sanctuary lights left off.
The early sun brings delights,
As it warms the one
Stained glass, Christ
With his shouldered lamb
Back from its wanderings.

Another car arrives
With tell-tale tic-a-tic.
The two women finally settled
Upon harvest treats worthy
Of the after-hour.
But this year minus Christina.

Art’s Christina…so sudden.
He at the piano
Sampling a few strains:
“Now thank we all our God…”
And he was thankful
For rescue of friends, memories.

Richard reflects on year’s near close.
One wedding, funeral, two baby girls.
Two farm foreclosures.
The awful crash in the fog.
County hospital’s new wing.
Clothes bundles and books for Haiti.

And what of this morning?
Fifty or so would come,
Harvests all in.
Lands churned, blackened,
And ready for sleep.
Crows in the final clean-up

Thanksgiving,
A wonderful pause,
And a weapon, wherein
Folk laud their Creator
Regardless.
The best yet to come.

PSALM 65