(Genesis 18:1–15)

            Promised sand afoot

sun-scuffed and shining behind us,

My song exalts the promise—

            I trail horizons

 

            while the stars also

pace their names, keep their promised

            and traveling places—

 

I stake the tent for home and

            more travel, I sing

blessings, the journey ninety years from home,

one lifetime from anywhere—

 

How fulfill an aging future? Our hearts

            on homewatch always,

our new names, our pilgrim prayers unselved—

 

            homepromise ever

beginning, and just in time angels tracked

our hearts this evening for new

            homesong, their visit

 

            gracious but casual,

conversational, our words

            well met, and our food—

 

No more pots of boiled lightning

for covenant under God-promised stars—

            Now my travelsong

welcomes the word of God home

            to the flesh of story—

 

            Now the homing stars

can turn to time at the pace

            of laughter, knowing.

Published in the July 8, 2016 issue: View Contents

Judy Little is Professor Emeritus at Southern Illinois University. Her publications include Comedy and the Woman Writer (University of Nebraska Press, 1983) and The Experimental Self (Southern Illinois University Press, 1996). Her poetry has appeared in Vallum, Beloit Poetry Journal, Prairie Schooner, America, and the Anglican Theological Review.

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