And Then the Wind Turned

 And Then the Wind Turned

(“They stopped asking, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us from the land of Egypt…’” Jeremiah 2:6a)

There was a time when I thought that
an empty room
and vacant thoughts
meant God had left the premises.
There was a time I screamed for
God’s return.
There was a time when I was certain
that wind like fire was
the certification of a job well done.
There were times I fasted badly,
told no one (or only a few)
and convinced myself had I held out longer
my troubles and temptations would have
melted like ice cream in the sun.
There was a time when I expected everyone
to agree. 

And then the wind turned on itself
when the big voices
insisted hurricanes were God’s destruction
for
blank and blank and so much sin that
it stank in his nostrils. Can we begin again? 

Please? 

Did God knock down trees simply to appease
your bluster mister man while you collected diamonds
on the backs of the poor?
And while you spread lies about stolen votes
you have sucked the soul right out of the nation.
How much fasting will replace your deceptions? 

Now I see (somewhat dimly)
the fullness of things, the revolution that
moves into the neighborhoods we once skirted
and called dark and oppressive. When,
all the while,
God waited for us to show up and see
what God was already doing.