Hard red winter wheat
stored in number ten cans

stacked beside oats and pinto beans;
basements holding water laced with chlorine;

tallow candles reserved for catastrophe;
rusted canning supplies and Dutch ovens―

all signs of our obedience to counsel
to prepare for a coming calamity.

But do these same principles apply
in matters of the Spirit?
​
Then why are we taught to seek
shelter from the storm

in the safety of another's authority―
 
     as if we needn’t prepare
     for our migration from milk to meat;
    
     as if another could fill our lamps
     with virgins’ oil by the bushels
     
     or could trim our lamps for us
     when they have gone to them

     seeking to buy
     what was devoured by moth
     
and find the door shut.