Authority

Authority

Mia Schilling Grogan

This morning at the coffee shop
you told your story of that man and his wife
and grew, as you talked, unsure of what it meant.
You wondered how to tell
that he reads scripture daily while she paints.

Each day on a farm in Vermont
they chart a still expanse of time:
they rise to home-baked bread,
shape an hour’s worth of work,
then walk.
Then eat, work, and walk again till supper.
Day pursuing day they will steward time together.
They also have eight children they have raised
on that fresh bread.
You thought this good until it's telling.

We sat, three in silence, you and I, at least,
unsure of how to judge. Our friend ate slowly.
And there, tensed below the clatter of cheap wares,
his unspoken comment changed lives.

---

Mia Schilling Grogan
Professor & Poet

Mia is an Associate Professor of English at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.  She is a medievalist who publishes in the areas of hagiography and women’s spiritual literature.  Her poems have appeared in journals including Light, America, First Things, Mezzo Cammin, The Windhover, Southern Poetry Review, and Presence.  

Photography by Jhunelle Francis Sardido