Member Lee Stockdale reflects on the first Sunday after Helene, October 6.

Nine Who Could

After the disaster of tiger floods—

roads washed away, mudslides, a heart-rending death toll,

no power, no cell phones, communication silented—

I knew there’d still be church this morning,

that Father Scott would think, This is exactly

when we need to have church.

He was standing at the gate with Glenn,

there’d be nine of us in a church that could hold

three or four hundred.

Scott asked me to read a passage from Esther,

what I wanted was Noah’s Ark,

to rescue Asheville from catastrophic devastation,

three homes in our neighborhood swept away,

were our neighbors inside? We don’t yet know.

The nine of us prayed for first responders,

for the food and water they say is on its way,

for lives of people lost in the floods,

for people lost to violence and wars.