Soundings East Publishes “A Guest in the Assembly of God Congregation”

Also in today’s very generous mailbox, I was delighted to find two copies of the Spring 2025 volume 47 of Salem State University’s literary magazine Soundings East, where you will find my poem “A Guest in the Assembly of God Congregation”:

A Guest in the Assembly of God Congregation
The loamy sermon runs
through my fingers and escapes,
caresses me and puts on its shoes
as penance. I came in a dress
and hose and too much Catholic
in my blood, I found men in overalls
and folding chairs and nowhere
to place painful and penitent knees.
Forgiveness is a flavor
worth the bruised and bitten lip.
I am told this is not a church,
this is God’s house, and no child
is turned aside who is willing
to admit they stole the change
from Nana’s cigarette purse
and that they may hate God,
just a little, for the toothache
in the bone of this uncurable disease.
The cantor’s voice is entreating,
places me in songs of old joy,
a veil over blue waters I swam
as a girl before I worried who
might see the soft meat of my thigh.

Cite as: Harris, Colleen S. ” “A Guest in the Assembly of God Congregation,” Soundings East, vol. 47, Spring 2025, p. 36.