[Ed. note: Our regular Friday Family Fun editor, Joanna Pritchard, is currently in Haiti, serving with the International Organization for Migration in its earthquake relief efforts. Please keep her and the community she is working with in your prayers, and see what you can do to continue helping Haiti recover from January's disaster. This article is from the Winter 2010 issue of Flourish Magazine.]
Requests
by Kendra Langdon Juskus
We want to not have too much:
red wine in coffee cups,
cookies in our lunches,
and black berries cloaked
in cushions of cream.
We want the hiss of a furnace
and a window
to watch the mourning doves
line up like feathered tassels
on the arms of the trees.
We want conversations shaped
like red-walled rooms:
spaces made safe for crying.
We want mountains of laughter
plowing the earth between friends;
nights of music and daring
and stars.
We want sweat from the sun
to slack our thirst.
A garden’s dirt
to cloak our skin.
Hope, reluctantly sweet,
to fill our mouths,
and an end
to all our wanting.
Kendra Langdon Juskus is managing editor of Flourish.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
A beautiful poem, Kendra, thank you – Ben
A beautiful poem indeed! ‘An end to all our wanting’– our deepest hope!