Oh love that will not let me go,
You were there
On my first birthday
A cake in Ann’s hands.
Amy’s arm around my high-chair
Sara’s smile, beaming at me.
My mother, standing behind
Like a hen gathering her chicks
Happy at my birth.
It’s not how I remember
Those lonely years
But now I know
You were like a ghost,
Hidden in their faces
I see you now
There.
In the song I sang in the sanctuary
Surrounded by voices praising you
That sweet choir echoing off
The stained glass and Easter-egg walls
Oh love that will not let me go.
You were there
My friend,
Arms around me
Holding my bones together
When we put my mother, her wax
Hands folded over her breast
Into the cold January ground
And you were there
When the ultrasound
Loudly announced the
Silence of the tiny heart
No longer beating
O love that will not let me go
I didn’t know it
Because you hid
Or I was blind
I screamed at you
I shook my fist
Ghost-God
You love to hide
But I have searched
And found
You.
Hidden in all of these things
Oh love, that will not let me go.
Now I know
You were there
All along.
