Calvin Ross, 2023
Wrinkles in Time
(after Madeleine L’Engle)
I toss a lasso in the corral of my mind, Voila! I’m 9
roping a cow to ride bareback on Grandpa’s farm.
I hug my wife in our bedroom, and we’re walking
barefoot on soft white beach sands of Destin.
Then front row for UH-oh Jimmie Rodger’s concert
in his Branson theater, she sighs and says, I’m 16.
I know a fellow who chants rituals with friends
in a sweat tent. At a certain Celsius, with mythic
incantations, he calls upon ancient Peruvians
for their spirits to return through millennia
to sit in a mandala circle for cleansing together.
Do you take communion in sacred whispers
of the Eucharist, Mass, or Lord’s Supper?
What occurs within memories of your flesh
when the liturgist proclaims improbability:
the wafer dissolving on your tongue is a taste
fresh from the first century? the sip of wine
you pause to slowly savor, an elixir of blood?
Mystifications dance in nanosecond quick steps
through our expansive minds—as galaxies
exploring a universe. Imagine a sleight of hand
performance on the tapestry of space and time
folding pleats from the soul’s there and then
to touch, to awaken our waiting here and now.
Editor’s Note: Calvin has contributed two other original poems to our website. Click on the underlined titles – Old Long Since, an Ode to the New Year and Keeper of the Plains.
Calvin has been an active member of the Poetry Society of Tennessee. In addition to a number of stories for this website, he wrote about using story-telling in his ministry. See “Ministry: Finding Purpose in Pastoral Care and Ethics.”
