On the First Sunday of Lent
someone broke into our church
through an unlocked window.
Hours before, open doors and supper
welcomed people coming and going,
known and unknown, with loaded paper plates.
He came late, after the doors were shut,
lights turned off, and trash cleared away.
In the morning we found
an office door bitten by a crow bar,
a file cabinet burst open, but also
a laptop, silver chalices, bottles of wine, Bibles,
personnel files, toilet paper…
We saw him on the security footage,
riding a bicycle through falling snow, like an angel
in a movie about cancer or Christmas.
He wore a hat, gloves, and a purple backpack.
We saw him on camera wandering alone, searching
the halls, trying doorknobs, peering into closets and cupboards.
He saw a camera and covered his face with his hand.
He didn’t want anything we had.
He left emptyhanded through the front door
and rode away in the snow on the bicycle,
the purple backpack flat and facing heaven.
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