Planting Seeds Poem by Amberlee Carter

kneeling between the corn-rows
I heard you
speak to God
as though
He might be listening,
willing to interrupt
this spiritual starvation


unaware that I had followed you
faithfully
as so many times before
to which I had vowed
I'd wait no more

the summer went
in one day
and suffered the night
to steal shine
from a distant bay

still I knelt between the rows
in faith
that you were
mind enough to listen
if
God should actually speak
upon this humble existence
you believed
and I conceived
within me, a child
that was not of blood and bone
but of hope-

and he clung to my insides
like a disease
and all I wanted
was to believe
that war would end

the need
for your fasting-
your faithful praying


then instead you could walk
with God in your garden
and forget of kneeling

between the musky stalks
all summer long
hands and head bent in respect
for a Christ who was still dying