Rafael Jesús González: "Grace"

Thanks & blessings be
to the Sun & the Earth
for this bread & this wine,
     this fruit, this meat, this salt,
          this food;
thanks be & blessing to them
who prepare it, who serve it;
thanks & blessings to them
who share it
     (& also the absent & the dead).
Thanks & blessing to them who bring it
     (may they not want),
to them who plant & tend it,
harvest & gather it
     (may they not want);
thanks & blessing to them who work
     & blessing to them who cannot;
may they not want—for their hunger
     sours the wine & robs
          the taste from the salt.
Thanks be for the sustenance & strength
for our dance & work of justice, of peace.

"Grace" by Rafael Jesús González, from In Praise of Fertile Land: An Anthology of Poetry, Parable and Story, edited by Claudia Mauro. © Whit Press, 2006.

Photography credit: Unknown (originally color).