Clasp – a poem by Shane Schick

Clasp

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. -- Acts, 19 11-12


Thousands of years after, 
thousands of miles away
from so much as the dust 

of any piece of cloth or cup
your hands had handled,
or had bumped or brushed

against you, I still search 
for particles, vestiges
of what came into contact

with you, whether left
in the veins of leaves 
or in the soil on a stone,

whatever could be carried,
somehow, across the sea
and the centuries, brought 

to me by sympathetic wind
or the friendliest of waves,
by a caregiving Earth

as if offering me some soup,
not necessarily to heal me
or because I had a demon

to evict, just to acknowledge
that to be a disciple is not
simply to follow but to adhere

to both teaching and teacher,
secured not like a strand 
of hair curled inside a locket

but like a locket’s chain,
links that want only to
encircle, to hold on.

Shane Schick is the founder of a publication about customer experience design called 360 Magazine. His poetry has recently appeared in Ekstasis, Macrina Magazine and other publications. He lives in Whitby, Ont. with his wife, an Anglican priest and their three children. More: ShaneSchick.com/Poetry. Twitter: @ShaneSchick.