Where will we buy food to feed these people?—Sarah Crowley Chestnut

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by Sarah Crowley Chestnut

(John 6)

Empty, the basket is an icon
of readiness, of welcome.

A woven willingness, the basket
is first witness, wordless

wonderer.  Full and still filling 
the basket holds, hallows—

now a reservoir, overflowing
with the more and evermore 

your prayer makes 
of one boy’s yeasted yes.

Bless the thin, brown weave
of his warm fingers!

Bless his upturned hold on the
five loaves!

Bless the incalculable wish—
basket, boy, empty bellies, fish—

which you, most willing vessel, 
behold with a homemaker’s

joy and knack, trusting 
abundance, spurning

lack.

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Originally from small-town California, Sarah Crowley Chestnut has lived and worked at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts, with her husband and two children for over a decade. Sarah’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Crab Orchard Review, Every Moment Holy Vol. III, The Windhover, CRUX: A Quarterly of Christian Thought and Opinion, Red Rock Literary Journal, and elsewhere. Her poem "Driving Home after the Eclipse, I Make Mental Notes" recently won first place in the 2025 Evangelical Press Awards.

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