we all await the grace that's promised us

[Gabrielle Dean]

Communion in the Asylum - Andrew Hudgins

We kneel.  Some of us kneel better than others
and do not have to clutch the rail or sway
against those next to us.  We hold up hands
to take the body in, and some of our hands
-- a few -- are firmer than the others.  They
don't tremble, don't have to be held in the priest's
encircling hands and guided to our lips.
And some of us can hold the wafer, all of it,
inside our mouths.  And when the careful priest
tips wine across our lips, many of us, for reverence,
don't moan or lurch or sing songs to ourselves.
But we all await the grace that's promised us.