The Same Song

The Same Song

(“There is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” Luke 15:7)

The invitation was sent straight to the last address we knew,
the postage licked upon the upper right-hand corner and
the envelope sealed with hand-fashioned card inside.

How could you miss the dancing? We nearly had the police called
on us
for all the noise! We could not help the raucous shouting;
it was no time for doves cooing or kitties purring,
this was straight up Wild Goose honking, the Geadh-Glas
inciting the high-step celebration. One more lost one
found their vacant seat again.

You pulled up, but could find no place to park?
The Shepherd strode the high hills of the mansion rich,
the cul-de-sacs of well-heeled pretense,
the clackboard boxes six-per-block,
and the tumble down trailers unscreened windows and doors.

He called for years, the name of the loved one, never forgetting
the way it first sounded upon the tongue. He whispered softly
in crowds,
sprained His voice as He ripped echoes across voided canyons,
and every day, the same vigor as at the first, the same
heartbreak, the same desire to reverse the pathway which took
the lone lamb away from the rest of us all.

You would have stayed, but did not enjoy the music?
Did you forget already, the same song was sung, with
the same passion and abandon, the very second in time
you turned on a dime (not quite so far from home, but
just as absent); has the taste of the finest fare already
been erased from your tongue?

There is time to return, however late. The dances begin
upon the hour, upon the minute, upon the moment
the front door opens for anyone who changed their mind,
deciding a party thrown by God leaves no time to
ponder the propriety of it all.