Mail Carrier by Peter Mladinic

 

Image | Unsplash

Mail Carrier 

“Church family,” he said,

“day after day Al delivered mail 

to your door: bills, flyers, letters

he took from his brown leather bag, 

shiny and worn with use, 

with a black sheen like a black cloud 

on top from where his hands 

had touched it, a light brown leather 

saddle-soaped so it wouldn’t crack.

With a strap slung over his shoulder,

today he walks into God’s arms, 

part of the spiritual body, good news.

He’s the love letter in God’s hands. 

That leather bag’s gleam,

were we to look at it, would blind us.”

© Peter Mladinic

Peter Mladinic

Peter Mladinic's most recent book of poems, Maiden Rock, is available from UnCollected Press. An animal rights advocate, he lives in Hobbs, New Mexico, United States. 

Follow Feed the Holy