New Calling
(sci-fi)

She had quit the complex
A while ago
A lay sister
“Mother” to the order
And the last one
Left

She had found a robe
Left by someone
Who had doubted
And she took
It
Wrapped it around her frame
Tightened the rope from which
Knots dangled
Then
Began her wandering

She needed shelter
Now and then
Sometimes finding a cave
Or what was
Left
Of a town
Sometimes hunched behind
A piece of wall that stood
While around
Hot wind or cold wind
Depending on the mood of Earth
Blew by

There was food
Mostly she tried to find
In
Nature
But would go with preserved things
If she must

She was no
Diogenes
She had no lantern
Though now and then
There was
A flashlight
She could use while the charge
Held out
And then the tube was
Useless
Unless she should need an abnormal
Straw
Now and then
Which she didn’t

She could make fire

She wasn’t looking for
The honest man
Another
Woman
Maybe
Other sister
From an order like her own
Another refugee
From ancient sanctity
In modern
Costume
Though regarding habits
And pardoning the pun unto
Herself
She practiced
None
No daily prayer
No minding
Of the liturgies of the hours

That she had often
Missed
Anyway
Due to exigency while
Mothering
The abbey
And now
She chose to
Ignore such things become
Anachronistic in
A planetary
Moment

In terms of humans gone
Mostly
She blamed men

Women wouldn’t do this
She had concluded

She didn’t look for God
For God must be
Allowing
Having let the world
If the human part alone
Go so far as to
Ruin
Nearly everything
And remove all company
Meaning
Companionship
So far

C L Couch


Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash


notes

lay brothers and lay sisters could and can take over practical concerns within monastic communities, while maintaining faithful identities avowed of their own

“none” would be another pun, regarding prayers at hours

of course, this isn’t real and isn’t prophecy (the future-telling kind)—rather Happy Hallowe’en!