Lux

by Ryan Service

In hospital, mirrors are hard to find,
even in the lift,
and so you seek your face creatively,
catching yourself in the glint of a
yoghurt lipped spoon.

Moving to the basin, an electric O
crowns you as you stand tall and
altered in gown green,
a mirage of the saints.

By this light you resist reliquary and
hear your name gloriously thrown
back at you from the throat of heaven.
Composer of life, whisper me back.

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Ryan Service is a full-time priest and sometime-poet based in the Midlands (UK). His work has been published in Theology, The Sociological Review, and other journals. He received a prize for his entry in the Jack Clemo poetry competition, and before training in Rome he read English at the University of Warwick.