“Writing on my hand”

Stepping forward to receive the host, 
I spread out my palms before 
I remember these aide memoires 
inscribed in black biro, blots 
not quite scrubbed away. The left

now sat awkwardly in right recalls 
things to buy, people to catch, 
a reference, a superscription— 
Of the Sons of Korah. A Psalm. 
A Song. Too late to change,

I commit. The minister holds up 
for brief eternity the wafer stamped   
with crosses—the body of Christ— 
then consigns it to my waiting 
hands, become a palimpsest.

Clare Bryden “Writing on my hand”, Christian Century, Volume 142, Issue #1, January 2025 and stand-alone post, 9 December 2024, online.

Copyright © 2025 by the Christian Century. Reprinted by permission from the January, 2025 issue of the Christian Century. christiancentury.org