Carpet

The carpet in the Adoration chapel
Is green, and calls to mind
Doctor’s offices and hotel hallways.
The walls are plain white
The ceiling tiles are peeling with the voracity
Of long humid summers with broken AC.
They all surround the monstrance
Gleaming in the fluorescent light
With the almost comical reverence of poor shepherds
Heeding angelic voices –
“Surely not here, not now” –
And yes, if I had gold, I would give it
If I could paint, I would never stop.
But all I can do, here, now
Is kneel on the ugly, green carpet.

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Katie Boord is an emerging poet from Kansas. She works in a geology lab by day, and sings in an indie rock band by night. Her poems have been published in Heart of Flesh Literary Journal and Poetry Super Highway.