Ode to International

What Efficiency Costs

One person with a backhoe would not

have had the experience of fellowship.

Would not have had the chance to dance

in the hole or celebrate a heavy stone

removed from the earth.

Or felt the sweat.

Or the rain.

Or heard the sounds of a rooster or

a child’s laugh.

One person with a backhoe would not

see in each tossed stone a day

a family will know the peace of a home

they have helped to build.

Or imagine using the earth and its clay,

its stones to build the home itself.

Or feel blisters and soreness in the hands

and still feel joy.

Or drink juice from the pods of a tree

that shadows a home.

Or feel heavy earth on their shoes

and be reminded that we are earth too.

One person with a backhoe

would not have received

the gifts of a hug,

or of linens,

or of smiles.

Or the stories.

One person with a backhoe

would have simply dug a hole.

by Matt, Peter, Rick, Franciene, John, Kathy, Gary, Michele , Janet