Across Water – a poem by Alexandria Barbera

Across Water

 
There’s a church on the lake
up ahead. We travel down a

narrow road that leads to its
dead, wooden doors, hoping

that the drive itself is not the
full journey, that deferral is

not our final destination. The
end of the road is always a

river: it flows in a different
direction, sometimes against

where we’re praying to go.
It’s not opposite arrival but 

sideways, off parallel paths
into bleak interiority. These

nearby lakes are shining
with a resonant life while

the church is empty. Still,
there’s something piercing

and angelic hovering over
both. It’s something great,

something wild.

Alexandria Barbera (she/her) lives in Ontario, Canada and is a regular contributor at Women in Theology. She recently completed her MA in Cultural Studies at Trent University, where she studied literary ecology. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Tiny Seed Journal, The Other Journal, Ekstasis Magazine, Frogpond, and Modern Haiku. She is currently the editor-at-large at EcoTheo Review.