Euangelion

Euangelion

Marda Messick

For Paul

In church on the feast
of the Baptism of Christ,
I startle to remember,
thirty years to this day,
my mid-life drowning
and the blue dress I wore,
dark wet like a river;
the oil of anointing
lavished my head.

Now Evangeline comes
to chrism and water,
a months-old girl
whose name means gospel;
and I see as she passes
in the arms of her father,
the wide cleft
that splits the lip
of her laughter.

How have I cleaved
these thirty years gone
to gifts and promises
then bestowed?
I have forgotten
my original face;
I want to change:
Child, bring
your evangel.

---

Marda Messick
Poet & Theologian

Marda is a poet and theologian living in Tallahassee, Florida on land that is the ancestral territory of the Apalachee Nation. Her work has appeared in The Christian Century, Delmarva Review, Vita Poetica, Verse-Virtual and other print and electronic publications. Currently she is working on a chapbook. 

 Photography by Elisa Jeanne