Ubi Caritas Deus Ibi Est

750 CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE Ubi Caritas Deus Ibi Est Where there is charity, there God is. No charity in my taut face when, my blood still warm with wine, I hissed at my son for kicking the pews; and none in the threats I used when he dropped, careless, the hymnal on my knee; no pity in the way I dragged his small wrists past the candles' smoking, ruby-throated prayers, or in the spiteful snap of the car seat. But that night, when he called me from his bed and I smelled the hot vomit on his quilt, when I stripped the sheets, wiped clean his face and changed his reeking shirt, lying beside him till he slept, then, like a rabbit, I crept beneath God's wide skirts, and the reckless dogs that chase me heeled and whined, unable to follow into that warm domed darkness where Love tucked me near like a bell's clapper and my tongue rang sweet, for once, to hear. ANYA SILVER ...