IN CHURCH IN CUENCA..........................................................................................................................TIMOTHY SAFFORD

In Church in Cuenca

Poem by Timothy Safford

In church in Cuenca Ecuador I watched a woman Come to mass Before she went to market To sell the chickens Strapped upon her back Their scrawny featherless legs and pointy feet near my nose as we danced up the aisle To receive bread that A priest held like the rising sun. He stood behind a large offering basket So I gathered my nine coins. She reached back And like the archer pulls an arrow from the quiver She pulled a chicken And laid her there On radishes and potatoes That the toothless man sacrificed Just a moment before. Manna back to god Lunch for a priest The tenth coin.