I read that the three stages of faith

are receipt, assent, and surrender,

which must be true, for I happily enter

these stages and am succumbed

by them every day with you. For years

I moved between them, but now I live

in their energy, for their energy,

inhaling and exhaling their syllables

as the representation of this state of faith.

Because of you, the curriculum.

Because of you one duty just because

I want to. Reverence --

not in obedient response but

for the sake of something shared, good guy

that you are stumping up the step

to meet me after a day somewhere

in the world, faithful to me, altogether

too abstract until you pull me to you

at the top of our porch, lips to lips,

face to face in faith.