Acolyting
Amanda Thornton
We had a priest who lost his legs.We lifted his wheelchair
up to the altar, during a hymn
so the organ muffled
the floorboards’ creak.
I washed his fingertips before Communion
as required
using water from the gold cruet
though I had to stoop,
and his hands caught the dust
from wheels of his chair
as he moved through the rite.
At “This is the body of Christ”
his arms stretched
above his head as he broke
the bread. It snapped impressively
though some now could not see
from where they sat.
During Communion, the sacrament trickled
from the plate in his lap to the floor.
Some cried
but the acolytes took the wafers from the ground,
slipped them into our mouths,
and moved the service on.