Sanctuary

Let this home be

a sanctuary

where all who enter feel peaceful

and safe.

Let these young souls

be grown

on Mama’s bread, Daddy’s music.

Let their feet grow big

beneath soft, worn quilts.

Let them find me in the morning

in that hand-sewn apron

they made me for Mother’s Day

some years ago.

Let them outgrow their shoes

and grow into their opinions

inside walls that are stained

with their scribbles and scrapes.

Let them know the grooves

of these floors

like they know

the look that I give

when they’re noisy in church.

Let this home be

our sanctuary

that lives within us

as we live within it.

And when they come back

years and years from now

let them find that

same peace

same love

same feeling

that says,

right here —

you always belong.