For all the saints
Whom no one thought to name
No litany of bliss
For their praise proclaims
For the homely saints
No halo aglow
Favored by the Lord
But to us so so
For the ruined saints
Who craved no boardroom glee
But offered their arms
And gave without fee
For the tattered saints
Who found no rest at home
But served in patient woe
And shrank in hearts alone
For the silent saints
Captured by their pain
Offering it to Him
For salvation’s gain
For the saint unseen
By power or by peer
The crownless heir of love
Raised on Christ’s bier
The lumpen hump of flesh
Draped across bench
Whose spit is his smile
And bouquet his stench
For the blithering saint
Whose strings of words bemuse
His blank stare runs counter
To the civil use
For the stunted saints
No worldly stature given
Graced by a shrug
And through neglect shriven
For the hidden saints
Caught in His eye
Reflections of God’s love
In ordinary guise
The humble face of saints
Uncanonized
Lies in the dust
By Him only prized
For these great saints
We have yet to know
Celebrate today!
Feast on crow.
–Anonymous
[Photo by mariehochhaus @ Flickr]