Readers
Readers
Mary Barbara Lindsey
What’s all this reading, reading, reading for
when one day your brain where you keep it all will sputter
& the neurons disintegrate to dust?
It’s because the words are soul-making, soul-shaping
little chisels & hammers & fine brushes of truth
together building stories remaking us
So when my brain turns to dust turns to dirt and my soul packs up
for the journey, it’s shaped by touch by sight by song by words
Ready to go
Ready for eternity
inclined to searching out the unsearchable
and shaped by that
we’re made for that
made thirsty for that.
Words I didn’t make are making me
Words shape a shadow of something lasting hinting at everlasting
and words ask, did you see the ripple in the dark glass?
because we’re made for that
To arrive one day, when days as we number them are done
and will the mysteries we study unfold then before us,
us rejoicing in seeing the fullness of things
connected like synapses, un-dusty, un-dustbound
one bright story of all the earth & sky & spirit & truth & souls
whole we all grow together
in Christ
right there with the other seekers we’ve only known
on paper, in their hammering & chiseling out truth
(put their names here, the seekers & writers of the words that chiseled you, reader)
with God unfolding it all before us
& all of us sharing glances of joy & wonder
seeing, knowing now what all the little words were hinting at.
We were so ready, so practiced at seeking
the peak of the mountain, the city under the sea, the lost tribe, the missing chalice,
the torn off corner of the map
that now we know the place when we arrive.
Mary Barbara Lindsey
Writer & Teacher
Mary is a reader, writer, teacher, and mom in central Illinois where she also photographs people, parties, and the prairie. She has the great joy of being a volunteer leader in her church’s arts ministry which seeks to build community and encourage artists in their faith and work.
Photography by Marina Reich