Belonging

Belonging
  (a monologue)

When I was working I saw that face, on
  The new hire whose green card wasn’t right,
  The service reps whose performance numbers weren’t up,
Who were walked back to their desk, given a box (for their things),
  Whose face bore the look of losing a home,
  Whose shoulders bore the weight of lost acceptance,
They never spoke up,
  They looked not around,
  The eyes never rolled all the way back in their sockets,
There’s were the faces who silently said
  “I guess I thought wrong, and now I am gone”

A Sunday morning in the pews,
  She sat across the aisle from me,
When she kneeled she didn’t act as
  Stern nuns with rulers were ready to correct her posture,
  She prayed like she belonged there,
Stepping in the aisle, doing that curtsey & genuflect thing
  Like only lapsed Catholic women do in Protestant churches,
She showed no fear of being corrected, neither by Parent nor Prior,
  She owned it!

At Coffee Hour we spoke, her story was;
“I’m a Deacon, I’m looking for a place in the diocese,
  Do you know what a Deacon does?”
I didn’t,
“Deacons do the community outreach, from the church, the parish,
  The Priest in charge or the Rector does the work inside the church,
  While the Deacon does the out in the community work, outside,” and then,
“You wouldn’t know, is your Parish looking for a Deacon?”
I told her we’re a small parish, and that our Rector handles most everything,
“Is she here? I was hoping to talk with her,”
I added she was probably changing in the Sacristy, but after mass she’s usually so busy
  I’d just email her later if there’s something needing her attention,
“Ah, thanks,” and she left her purse and coffee on the table,
   Walking off with a purpose

As a gentleman I felt obliged to watch her things,
  Not that I thought any here would steal it,
  I just stood, unconcerned…

When she returned, there it was again,
  That face I hadn’t seen in years,
She picked up her purse and coffee,
  Didn’t say anything, just that de-homed countenance, it said,
“I guessed wrong, and now I’m gone,”
  And she trashed her coffee on the way out