Quarantine

by Charis

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​Church doors
Barred.
Locks set.
Guitar strings, silent, strung
Across an empty floor.
Organ pipes
Stopped with cobwebs.
All locked, all empty.
Cancelled.

Windows boarded.
Bibles stowed away.
Spiderwebs in the pulpit,
And floors forgotten
By human feet.
Dirt on the windows.
Dust on the shelves.
Silence rings, not bells
And only insects hear.

But:

Unless our hearts are shut and locked,
And our voices are silent,
Unless our lights are snuffed out,
And our eyes are shut with fear,
The inner sanctums of our hearts have gone cold,
And we’ve clogged the valves of kindness,
There is church today.

​​Instead of making excuses,
We make a way in the desert
Instead of stockpiling,
We give of God’s heart

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And we wash our hands of bacteria,
But we don’t wash our hands of our neighbours.
And we might wear our masks,
But our eyes are wide open.

​Church is now.

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© 2020 Charis Noviskie. All rights reserved