Novice
She is just sixteen, and clings
to her pillar of faith,
plump as a duck, or a goose
stuffed with buttery prayers.
Papa delivers fish, wine,
fur-lined boots, to the convent turn
and the sisters question
(after their silent supper) how
such a child could ever learn
the art of suffering on her own.
Mother scolds her when she
drops her cloth, broom, fork –
forgets to drop her gaze,
delights at a play of light
around a statue. Therese
kneels and kisses the floor.
Even now, she’s working
on her heart’s first draft,
her young soul proven
and rising like dough.
Sarah Law has published five poetry collections (the latest, Ink’s Wish, with Gatehouse Press in 2014) and is currently working on another about St Therese of Lisieux. No saint herself, she lives in London and teaches for the Open University and elsewhere.