“The Leftovers”

The poem is “The Leftovers”.

*From The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers

With twenty loaves of bread Elisha fed

the one hundred till they were satisfied,

and Scripture tells us there was bread left over.

Jesus did more: with five small barley loaves

and two dried fish he fed five thousand men,

together with their wives and children, all

neatly arranged upon the cushioned grass.

The awed disciples, when the crowd had eaten,

gathered up what was left: twelve baskets full.

Who then received these fragments? Hopefully,

the least (though not less favored) and the poor.

I think of those who always seem to get

the leavings from the banqueting of others,

the scraps of bread, of life, that goodness saves.

I pray that they come proudly when invited,

make merry at their meal and have their fill,

and rise up thankfully, remembering

the fragment, too were miracles of love.*

*From The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers, published by
ICA Publications, Washington, D.C. All copyrights Carmelite
Monastery, Pewaukee, WI.