Field

When you feel despicable,
the field will have you back.

You can never be enough,
but the field will have you back.

You want the years you haven’t
yet had, but you don’t want them gone,
so go back to the field.

When sleep frustrates you,
the field wants you back.

When you have dropped every brittle thing,
the field still wants you back.

Your fear turns the carpet
into quicksand. Go back
to the field.

When the fitted sheet torments your hands,
take it to the field.

When burned toast blackens your teeth,
spit it out in the field.
You are a disappointment.

You are banished to the place that will
always reach for you, the field.

When you are ruined
go back to the field.

Go back the way you came in.
The field will have you back.

—Hannah Stephenson

Copyright © 2013 by the author or Christianity Today/Books & Culture magazine.Click here for reprint information on Books & Culture.

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