Today we celebrate St. Brigid. Her feast day marks the end of the darkness of winter and heralds the new season of hope and growth. Brigid is the patron saint of poets and is known for her miracles of healing for the disenfranchised. I pray that Brigid will inspire someone to be a living kidney donor for me and for all others who are waiting for a kidney. I wrote the following poem about St. Brigid.
On St. Brigid’s Day
I hold a relic, a sliver of her bone,
no bigger than a hangnail
wrapped like a badge
the edges stitched with green thread
to help me quell
my fear of lightning.
I weave Brigid’s cross today
press firmly my fingers on the straw
crisscrossing and turning them
to make the central knot
to seek her heart, that heart that heard anomalies
like lepers thirsty
who want to celebrate with beer,
and the woman who did not want
her child, I pray let me hear
and heal.
