number 28

food & thought
Rice from a cafeteria gets made a mountain at a time and there was a small hill of it on my plate with enough jerk chicken to get me through the afternoon and I was hungry and just out of Thursday service where a woman preached with some drama that won me over, finally, and moved me when she reminded me that Jesus is everywhere, whether I like it or not, and that he laughs sometimes, and before her we prayed and we sang and a student from Ghana stood before us and recited a poem from his forthcoming book and he told us what was on his mind, and afterwards, scanning the lunch tables, I saw him with his friends and he and his poem were on my mind so I went and they cleared the last empty chair at their round table and we all introduced and they were nice to let me sit and laugh with them when I could pick out their heavy english and so I ate with these men that brought their smiles all the way from West Africa except one from Trinidad and it was good and the rice wasn't bad either.

After He Read
All their tongues thick with accents,
his strong poem, powerful
words called me to their table.