Lament I do not have faith to hope though I have faith enough

A lament for Australia
Summer 2020

Where do we begin
with this great wall of fire
or that fire storm
or the hungry angry monster?
Where do we begin?

How do we enfold them all
into our love, the dozens
of humans dead, the hundreds
of homes razed, the thousands
of folk displaced, the millions
of acres burned, the billions
of creatures dead – how can
our embrace include them all?

What is the starting point
for our care, now, this task
now to rebuild: which lives
to prop up, which towns to
reconstruct, which roads to open,
what first? what next? what do we do ?

We need You.
We need You here with us,
and with us all. We need
courage and wisdom, love
and compassion; we need
safety, we need care, we
need healing, we need hope –
O, Holy One, we need You.
Draw us in, fill us up,
send us and go with us as we reach
out from where we are, one step, one
act, help us remember we are
one, and to find that somehow, thus,
we have begun.

© Sarah Agnew