If Anyone Asks

By Eileen R. Kinch

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“Tell the people: though I am dead, I am still alive.” 
—St. John the Wonderworker


If anyone asks, put my body in the ground 
at the meeting house, in a pine box.  
Let the soil claim me.
But I will be here, all around you.

If anyone asks, I will be by the Susquehanna, 
waiting on the Lord. 
The river and I are one.  In the womb, 
I breathed in its waters, with my gills.  
You’ll find me there.

If anyone asks, I will also be at home by the cornfields, 
waiting on the Lord.  
I will be eating backyard cherries 
and spitting out the seeds.  
May they be fruitful and multiply.

If anyone asks, the Lord is near.
When the deer pauses, mid-mouthful, 
and glances at me, I feel it.
I see a knowing look in those eyes.

When the river washes on and off my feet, 
I hear that voice in the sound of the water.
Take off your shoes.  Stand still.  The Lord is near.

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Eileen R. Kinch graduated from the Ministry of Writing programme at Earlham School of Religion, Indiana. She is the author of the chapbook Gathering the Silence. She lives and writes in Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania.

Eileen's poem 'Planting Forgiveness' appeared in Foreshadow last week.