into the body

(inspired by 1 Cor 12:12-26 and Matt 6:25-34) 

look at the juncos of the air.
baptized to their bellies
in cold white.
jumping about
for no reason,
a flock all aflutter.

their faith is full
of feathers
unruffled.

---

when water catches light
and sprinkles our heads,
or swallows us thirstily
in one gulp,
we are all baptized—
paul says—
into the body.

not into a holy idea
or godly doctrine.
not into a heaven
of ghostly reward.
not into an afterlife…
but into full-bodied life itself.

into skin and scar,
bones and breaks.
into birth and breakfast and bathing,
into loving and leaving and loving still,
into a cross and a grave and new life.

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look at the juncos of the air.
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns.
they hop into the world’s frosty baptismal font
for no reason at all.