Cathedral

Kathryn Jones

September 22, 2024

Gothic arches, columns, soaring spaces –

I feel tiny beneath flying buttresses 

while I light a candle for my mother 

who never visited Notre Dame except in photos.

Her face lit up when I said I would see it

for her. I pray for her healing and mine, 

even though I know it’s likely too late, but 

hope is the soul’s flame, flickering in the dark. 

Fire almost destroyed the cathedral but

I hear the sounds of rebuilding. They comfort me, 

more than prayer or meditation, that time marches 

onward, taking us with it, willing or not.

The cathedral’s new spire scrapes the sky, 

pointing to heaven, but my mother lies in a bed

in South Texas next to an altar of remembrance 

where my tiny candle burns.

Kathryn Jones is a poet, journalist, and essayist whose work has been published in The New York Times, Texas Monthly, Texas Highways, and the Texas Observer. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including TexasPoetryAssignment.com, Unknotting the Line: The Poetry in Prose (Dos Gatos Press, 2023), Lone Star Poetry (Kallisto Gaia Press, 2023), and in her chapbook, An Orchid’s Guide to Life, published by Finishing Line Press. She was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2016 and lives on a ranch near Glen Rose, Texas.