Sing the Sanctus
masked.
Speak the Acclamation’s
Christ will come again,
sharp and salutary
as a vaccination.
Kept by caution
from tearing
off a common loaf,
ingest a tiny cube
of white bread.
No wine.
Just grape juice
poured in
plastic cups.
All Saints’ Day.
Leaves fall from
maples, alders, tables
set for more than two.
Rhythm
in the liturgy,
rhythm
out in the ordered
world, sustain me
in this altered
Covid life.
Leland Seese’s poems appear in The Christian Century, The Chestnut Review, RHINO, and many other journals. His debut chapbook, “Wherever This All Ends”, was released in 2020 (Kelsay Books). He lives in Seattle with his wife, where he serves as a pastor and is a foster-adoptive and bio parent of six.