by Lory Widmer Hess

We can’t help doing what we are.
The giver of milk devours her child,
confusing feeder and food.

And tied as we are to this world, we’re always
bound to enslave it, pinning it down
to fix those fluttering wings.

But what of the one who never
gave slap for slap, whose death
was life? What of His gift?

Is this the price of our freedom,
paid in such strange coin, a mystery
not to be known with minds of clay?

Lory Widmer Hess is an American currently living with her family in Switzerland. She has worked for the past ten years with adults with developmental disabilities, from whom she has learned her greatest life lessons, and is in training as spiritual director. Her writing has been published in Parabola, Red Letter Christians, Kosmos Quarterly, Christian Community Perspectives, and other print and online publications. She blogs at enterenchanted.com and can be found on Mastodon at @lorywidmerhess@bookstodon.com.