Did You Hear?

Did You Hear?

(“I will treat them with kindness, even though they are wicked. I will forget their sins.” Hebrews 8:12)

Did you hear the sound like invitation
coming over the mountains, no imagination
could conjure its message, could synthesize its bliss;
layers of laughter mix with the tears,
when we hear music like this.

Enchanted and earthy, the song makes us pale
at first blush. Our knuckles are white, our heart
forgets the beat, while we await the refrain that
we hope will resolve complete the hopes we’ve carried
inside our regrets.

Pulling up to the courthouse, nervous about the verdict,
I can’t complete a sentence without wanting to admit
each crime I’ve committed, each failure I forgot.
Paying my quarter to park a bit longer
I climb the steps where my past meets me the last
workday of the week.

Unsupervised, I walk up the steps on my own,
holding the banister I am an amateur at self-defense.
Still the usher (I thought I would have to open the
door on my own) looks me in the eye (He must know the verdict,
he heard my fate). Still the usher

Looks me in the eye and
swings open the door behind my back when

The song comes gushing out like a Mohave Desert
flash-flood. Where is the judge, the bailiff, the jury,

My peers?

I thought I was alone in my crimes, and banished to
having to stare down every accuser along the way. But
the song melted the shame, dissolved every claim to
innocence and ever mounted defense to judge me

(joyous adjudication), a freer man that I had become.