Hymn

Hymn

By Nicole Gayler

“Belief can’t be willed into being” - Jonathon Safran Foer 

There’s a bitter cold seeping through my coat 

As I pass the open church door: 

They’re singing a Christmas hymn, deep 

Reverberation from the chest. 

Humming with belief like a hive mind, 

There's the warmth of a God made real between them. 

I read the bible cover to cover as a child, 

Said empty prayers on my knees by the side of my bed. 

To experience the warmth of a God, believe so hard 

And hear it echo back, believe in a man who loved 

You enough to stretch out his arms and bleed raw. 

Their voices fade out and my ears are a stinging red. 

Tonight I will have a jacket potato for tea, just me.