Unbreak Your Back

Unbreak Your Back

(“You were complacent in your evil deeds; you thought, ‘No one sees me.’ Your self-professed wisdom and knowledge lead you astray, when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’” Isaiah 47:10)

I can’t say we were shocked when your genius
(your highness)
fell from a stable
to a mahogany scarlet velvet throne;
but some were surprised (yet they would never
admit it.)

Your infancy was cradled in monumental deception,
you were conceived in arrogance and nursed on privilege
with little detection
of flesh and blood other than the band that
did your bidding.

I can’t say it took us by surprise, your rise from boasting
to a pill too bitter to swallow. And flocks of fallen angels
laid their hands on you, leapt like fawns for you,
posed in photos and roped in the followers for you.
But some were shocked (and they were ejected for it.)

Look over the vast expanse, walk next to the immigrant’s child,
ride in the front of a farmer’s combine at harvest,
sit with the mother and children who have stopped waiting
or the man to come back. Unbreak your back for once and leave
your agenda (hand-written, one thing to do today)
to find the place where the one-king lives

Back in the stable, just a few blocks south of the house
white with history’s stain. Right in your backyard

Left there since the mystery of incarnation; resign
and refind why the one man Jesus loved, having too
much stuff to carry

Turned away and did not follow.

Dust and Thirst

Dust and Thirst

(“Come down from your lofty place and sit in the dust.” Jeremiah 48:18a)

You sit in your dust and you laugh as if you drink all day from
a tap of crystal liquid; so cool your burning eyes assume all will be
healed under the flow of its spring.

You bivouacked a place higher than your enemies,
you set up camp to display your long stature, your tall statues,
your walls which shine with whitewash sheen. In the desert you
can pretend all summer and nearly all autumn as well; the veneer is

smeared upon the stacked rubble walls. You stole the shimmer from
mica and polished bronze in angles to reflect the sun's long rays
for the fat portion of the day into the last few sightseers' approving view.

But the rains reveal you are austere; enough water to persuade your
pretty pebble to let loose of their sham of a veneer. You are done.

I stand in humanity's circle, showing off my latest braintrust just the same
as ancient Moab and Dibon, its royal city. Here's the thing, we who sing
our praises through the summer until the rains of revelation expose our
bling as nothing more than drugs store trinkets, we will thirst in the dust
if we do it long enough.

Come down from your heights, you boaster of National rights;

Start the hike today, off the mountain; do not delay, your boast is only
brighter balloons filled with the same gas as the names you've claimed
are behind every conspiracy. You are the tyranny you decry.
Your hunger to be right is the heresy that prevents tomorrow's meal
from gracing a family so hungry their faces are smeared messy after
the feast.

Garden

(“Some fell on good earth and came up with a flourish, producing a harvest exceeding his wildest dreams.” Mark 4:8 [The Message])

The earth boasts in flowers while the
sun and rain hold their tongues.

Boasting in the Lord

“Boasting in the Lord”

 (“Christ Jesus…became for us divine wisdom and righteousness and holiness and redemption, so that as has been written, ‘Let the boaster boast in the Lord.’” 1 Corinthians 1:30b, 31)

Have you ever noticed someone who simply can never be wrong? Suppose a friend misplaces a book they were reading at your house. He calls you up and says, “I know my book is over there. I’ve looked all over my house and in my car. I even opened up my dog’s mouth. It’s not here, so you must have it.”