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.
Timothy Safford is an Episcopal Priest, having moved to Philadelphia from Los Angeles in 1999 to serve as the pastor of Christ Church, in Old City. Poetry is a hobby, and, “In Church in Cuenca” is his first published poem.