Sit With Me a While

 

Sit With Me a While

(“For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and He has filled the hungry soul with what is good.” Psalm 107:9)

Come sit with me a while,
I need an old friend with a new smile,
a soul who whispers deep when
the darkness creeps up on me.
I need a single scion of joy grafted
to my sighing roots.

I’d trade my troubles for an hour
sitting on a bench by the river
with an old friend who thinks I might
be crazy
but doesn’t care how murky I’ve become,
who only knows that once in a while
forest fires from faraway places can
smoke out the brightest longing for day.

I’ve cried to the God who
I’ve cried to
sooner, bluer, truer and slower,
and fasted days trying to replace the
unwieldy shivering that ran from heart
to brain
to feet
to deeds;
still I felt like dying after one falling star
of insight crash-landed in the atmosphere.

I just need someone here,
a hand I recognize,
a voice with suspended disbelief
to quiver like my own. I would have
arrived here quicker
but I staged my faith with memorized lines
waiting for the next cue to mark my entrance.

Now, no stage, no script, no audience, no
performance-ready music to wow anyone but
myself. And I am my harshest critic.

Come sit with me awhile,
I am thirsty for God but
the only spiritual experience I ever had
was joy with humans who remember that
laughing and crying
are tongues of fire that
can ignite a friendship deeper
than preaching or praying
all night.

Come sit with me a while;
and by

A while

I mean, as long as I need. Please,
do not leave until both our cups are
empty
and both our cups are filled.