Come Closer

Come Closer

(Many of the people told him sharply to keep quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me!” Mark 10:48)

Blindness only happens when the light can’t get in,
and walls are erected to keep the holy from the ailing.
Dust explodes under the feet of the hopeless who hear better
than the seeing
and know better the feeling that the bottom is closer than
the surface walkers know.

Keep the rabble away from the quiet meditations,
keep the introverted crying while pentecostals shout,
liturgy can divide as surely as it unites,
and lifted hands with ingrown words lock hearts
tighter than we think.

“Keep quiet!” “Sing louder!” Stand up, sit down,
hymnal, dance around the pews at least one more time
and we’re sure to see the magician on the stage turn
our ailments to wine. We heard it happened in another
place, saw it posted, and overheard the miracles that
only occur to the initiated who are quiet enough.
Or loud enough. Or love liturgy. Or sing off key.
Or talk in tongues. Or never talk at all.

Fit my expectations and live!

But a daring few. Sorry; desperate. A desperate few disregard
the traditions and smudge the carpet with mud.
A blind loner finds the back bench and does not leave until
someone heard him shouting above the enforced sanctuary
with no talking aloud, where children are proudly herded upstairs,
and spares and strikes are reserved for Sunday evening conversation.

But an aching few whose pain keeps them from shouting; still,
silent and loudly, move past the requirements of the moment.
They sit in the middle, never making it to the altar (for the uninitiated,
that is the place at the front of the church, where people get saved for
certain.) They sit in the middle while masses swarm the altar
and yell in so many languages even the angels need interpretation.

This poor soul, so quiet and blind, is berated by one returning to his seat.
“How could you ruin the blessing, destroy the anointing, by sitting here
sullenly in this place?”

But shout or whisper, the desperate listener cries for mercy and hears the quiet
rebuke that says, “Come closer.” And, liturgy or adlib, the desperate wipe away
the habits of the faithful and

Usually find healing purer for both their ignorance and candor.