Ausbund 452
by Lori Hershberger
Swallows sweep over ripened wheat fields
the way Amish hymns rise and fall
and touch barren rafters on a Sunday morning in June.
From Monday to Saturday we toiled
in fields beneath a blazing prairie sun.
Now on backless benches we sing songs
of streams running through southern droughts,
of weeping that births a harvest of song.
The German words slip from our mouths,
low, then high, like birds carrying joy.
Inside we bend our thirsty spirits
dreaming of silver laughter on our tongues
and gleaming songs at gloaming.
Outside the wheat field hushes to the wind,
brooding beneath the soaring of the swallows,
waiting long and heavy for the reaping.
The German song, “Wenn der Herr die G’fängnis Zion,” an old German song based on Psalm 126, can be found in the Ausbund on page 452. It is tied to the “Ernte Schrift” (harvest text) that is preached each summer in Amish churches.
Lori Hershberger lives in Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand, where she teaches EFL and dreams of traveling across the Salawin River into Burma. You can find her book, Dustbeams, on Amazon.
Photography by Kenneth Godoy