Last Day

Sojourners Magazine, Apr 2004 by Essbaum, Jill Alexander

And shall I rise up

like a loaf of bread

from being so dead?

Should I walk

towards the light,

or is it a trick (consider

the wick of the candle,

the very poor moth winging

into its flame)? Will my name

suffice itself, a good deed,

done? And how will You

remember me, knitting

once again my limbs to my skin?

I shall be quite new,

if You please it. Is there room

enough for everyone?

And will it be any fun? Or,

will we reverence ourselves

into eternal ennui? Will the guilty

be gleefully redeemed, or are only

the holy made whole? Tell me,

what exactly will flash before my face

that day-the sum of all my sins,

or the figure of Your perfect grace?

Jill Alexander Essbaum teaches at Concordia University in Austin, Texas. This is from a series of poems that Essbaum tithes to her church.