WHAT BUSINESS IS A CHURCH

​HAOLUN XU

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what business is a church at sea, a lighthouse in the wake of the coming tides

the old ways with the cornered steps / the waves breaking each month apart like clockwork because
that's how the moon tells time apart from each day / bearing new weights against each sky and
sea's sunset

and when the lighthouse called out, it said this is heaven, this is where we take your body and put
it to rest underneath the waves and against the aching of your bodies

old fathers of the sea / bless this heart with salt / wash away the sickness of the hands

forget your wives and your families / look past this as you sail across and onto shore / forget the
loveliness that you were dreaming of at sea, there within the seaweed / the jagged layers of bedrock /
the stone of the docks / here is your truth and all of your belonging

what business is a church, a lighthouse is the wake, wake of the tides gone by

did you wait too long / are your arms tired / are you afraid to shut your eyes / but all souls remember
to bring themselves closer to the light / my baby my child come to the shore where boys are made
men and back again to infants