CONTENT

Packing again
to go to be with people
I've never met but know
like I know church folk
not that different from
the last church folk
preaching is an art
and a commitment
to show up to folk
who worry
question
gossip about their neighbors
think petty thoughts
and want a better life
if they can't be better people
except most everybody
wants to be better
than they are
and hope a preacher
a shaman
a barber
somebody with a little 
more life and spirit
than them--at least that's 
the way they frame that story--
SOMEBODY will help
them be better
I pack again, content to
be somebody to them
and to myself
to believe some
divine current
will flow through me
that words I speak
with sound like
they were first whispered
in the back halls 
of heaven, delivered
to my spark of a mind
by some angelic 
being content to
run errands between
god/s and humans
I'm content
to try
to be the voice
the ear that listened
the hope
for everyone
in that room
on Sunday, even
me, especially
me

Valerie Bridgeman
© August 17, 2013