The Building Fund
By Marnie Bullock Dresser

My brother said monkeys lived in the sanctuary beams
And if I would just sit still that one would drop
On my head and hug me tight and sit on my lap.
I prayed and waited, hands cupping “please.”
We grown-ups say church walls hold memories.
Acoustic tiles keep every hymn ever raised.
If we could somehow tap the glass, the stains
Would pour forth scenes of Easter hats and solvency.
But O! This old wineskin has a problem with mold,
And once the roof is fixed, the furnace needs
To be replaced. The whole foundation’s mortgaged.
The best fund raising in the world can’t bring
The monkeys back. The dust from angels’ wings
Drifts down in the pale quiet and drifts like snow.

Marnie Bullock Dresser lives in Spring Green, Wisconsin with her husband and son and is involved in starting a home church after years and years and years of church in buildings.