Writer’s Corner: I Wonder As They Wander
By Peter Venable
Below Maple Springs’ spire they descend basement stairs
into the pantry waiting room, take numbers, sit on folding chairs.
Those forty or so souls wobble
on worn feet, ragged bicycles, hybrid buses,
cars with blistering paint and caked child seats.
She, eyes black as coffee, shows a water bill
$90 past due (in red), bags her rations, rests
On dog-paw elbows, smiles at her new toothbrush.
He, face worn as barn floor planks,
owes $400, no power for two months,
and picks cereal, dry goods, soup cans.
Then the last one. Yankee accent,
tells his migration from Connecticut
to some three-gas-station town in S.C.
to here, strokes a black beard and gazes beyond me,
over pantry shelves into a heavenly place his eyes know,
rips open a bag of chips with mussel thumbnails,
leaves, plastic bags sagging in each hand.
I wonder how the Good News
speaks in noodle soup,
sliced wheat bread,
and applesauce.
Peter Carrington Venable just released his newest book of poetry, “Jesus through a Poet’s Lens,” available on Amazon. He is a retired addiction and mental health clinician and a member of Winston-Salem Writers.
