Respite

A woman walks a field of chores
toward a gate too narrow
for her satchel of burdens.

Seven days’ work,
a friend’s death,
sick children.

The gate
             swings open.

She hesitates
until it starts to close, then
drops her pack, lurches through
before the latch clicks,

saved
            by a shadow of grace.

written in response to Wendell Berry’s poem, “Sabbaths 1985, V”