Words We Cannot Place

Words We Cannot Place

(“All who call on the Lord’s name will be saved.” Romans 10:13)

I wonder what colors a child would see in the grass
if she has never learned the word “green.” I wonder what
name he calls god who has never heard
the word “hell.”

I wonder how we carve such narrow paths
when navigation is wide upon the sea. I wonder
how we tattoo people we never knew with “alien” or
“illegal” when they have children who
wonder about grass and moons and stars and god
and unicorns and pinatas and cakes and candles
and freeze tag and ice cream too.

I wonder about those who receive lavish gifts
and simply pre-sign postcards for the poor.
I wonder about the gospel that sounds like
venom and preaching that looks like war.

I wonder what color a child would see in the milking bucket
if he had never learned the word “white.” I wonder what
name she calls god who has never heard
the word “death.”

If you must, tag my forehead with grace;
If we will, bring everyone to the dancefloor;
the tall girl with braces, the boy with thick glasses,
the boy in the corner hiding, the girl in the bathroom freezing,
the group outside smoking, the class president and
her entourage, the late arrivals from shanties and mirages.
Invite them all, their call is clear, though foreign;

they appear and then are departed before they
ever get a taste of the unnamable grace

That bathes the universe with words we know by heart,
words we cannot place, words wholly apart from memory,
but seen in the face of Love that will not let the tiniest atom
escape the resurrection of the New Name by which
every family on earth is traced.