And A Child Shall Lead Them – a poem by Maryanne Hannan

And A Child Shall Lead Them


I.  In Denmark we are Lutheran,
says the tour guide, repeating himself in German

for travelers who do not speak English.
This church, Grundtvigs Kirke, is very important.

Look at the bricks, ten million bricks used
and every one the best, the finest in all Scandinavia.

The church holds 1,000 people,  
here he pauses conspiratorially,

but on any given Sunday, you will only find 27.
We laugh. Do what’s expected.

II.  Still there are Catholics in Denmark, 
and the next morning I go to Jesu Hjerte Kirke, 

Sacred Heart Church, where heads, not too many,
not too few, bend; elbows lean on old wooden pews.

And while the priest preaches in a language 
I don’t understand: Was that Christos? Did he say Sin? 

I keep wondering when Mass will end 
so I can leave church, walk the downtown streets

again, search again for that perfect konditori, a bakery 
with a trip-defining Danish pastry,

III.  and then a baby screams, no reason, inconsolable, 
prolonged, no remedy, a mother’s comfort worth 

nothing, it seems, against the universal measure 
of human heartache. And then I remember 

why we use the finest bricks, 
why we gather on old wooden pews, 

how we come to hold the highest hopes 
in the raised host, the Risen Lord, 

and I pray that this child, so desolate today,
will someday count himself—among the 27.

Maryanne Hannan has published poetry in both All Shall Be Well: A poetry anthology for Julian of Norwich and Thin Places & Sacred Spaces. A resident of upstate New York, USA, she is the author of Rocking Like it’s all Intermezzo: 21st Century Responsorials.