Angels Can Appear

Angels Can Appear

(“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” Hebrews 13:2)

Something seared my heart so severely it had
shut down. It caused me to never think twice about
closing the door. I’ve stopped the bleeding but
the pain remains. My heart is cramped and crammed with
uneasy expectations of strangers sojourning with me.

I listen to the same songs and watch the same channels on TV.
I’m enclosed in the circles of my routines. To ask me to share that
with anyone is to ask me uncomfortably. It’s hard to believe
that I once housed teenagers and grandmas with open arms.

I never cared about the consequences so long ago,
I rarely worried it would intrude upon my blessed habits
or peer inside my measured habitual humanity. I was too
spiritual for all of that.

I have always been broken but only shared it with a chosen few.
I have spoken of grace like it was pure medicine
and wondered about how many angels watched while I
unlocked the doors.

This time it’s harder. I thought I would receive a warm
commendation for taking the difficult road to peace.
I’ve locked my doors from the inside; I’ve canceled
my reservations in the hope that I could continue on my own.

I reserve the right to see angels show up like
the rising sun after the rain. I would watch for wings upon
the backs of those I welcomed to my home. My arid soul
longed for an apologetic that made the houseguest become
a messenger from forever and more.

Though I had grown used to my solitude I grudgingly agreed
to an attitude that disturbed my silence behind the closed windows
that suited me fine. I’ll roll the dice this time
once again
and consider the notion that angels can appear like
someone needing a home.

Do Not Forget Me

Do Not Forget Me

(“Are not five sparrows bought for two copper coins? And yet not one of them is forgotten by God.” Luke 12:6)

April is the fulcrum which winter and spring
balance upon. The hummingbirds come,
one an hour, to taste their sugar water hanging
above the backyard deck.
The eagles are fewer, their prey hiding in the
thickening grass and foliage.
The skies take turns threatening and inviting;
you begin to dream of cloudless days after
just an hour of sunlight between rain showers.
It has left me in between shaded sorrow and
sunlit rapture. My soul seems like a captured bird
which the clouds could not hold.
My mind feels disconnected and can only think
of napping as a cure for lethargy.
My brain is weary of masking itself from the
critiques it has always paid attention to. But I
am caged
by my own disengagements. I am so far down
the road that
I am the old one in the room. I’ve roped myself
so tightly
that my wings have atrophied despite my desire to fly.
But I can remember, somewhere between the age
of accountability and mid-puberty,
a boy who stumbled between whirlwind dancing
and curious crushes. Do not forget me,
boy of the past,
and name for me again the secret things
you’ve kept silent for too long. Do not forget me,
uncreated one, on these secondary days.

Oh Mercy

Oh Mercy

(“Praise the Lord, O my soul. And forget none of His acts of kindness.” Psalm 103:2)

He has spoken, He has loved us,
not a token or scribbled note on a napkin;
He has loved us, He has chosen,
not a segment or favored few; us and only.

The world spins darkly, the mirrors reflect dimly,
we breathe short, live less, digressing from the
designer’s pattern; oh Mercy, oh Kindness,
Righteousness and Justice. We crave
the banquet, and do not starve. We thirst
the waters, and wet our tongues.

Didn’t we dance once? Didn’t the world
green the day and crystal the night? Don’t you
recall the innocence, the child’s choice to
watch the stream flow endlessly until the last
diamond of sunlight between the leaves quietly
slipped behind the hill?

He has given, He has embraced
a world cringing the touch of the sanest love,
the same love we swam in before we began to
choose teams, pick sides, and divide the us and only.

He forgave, them, us; and inverted lonely,
emptied the satisfied crowns of hand-me-down
conquest; Conquered death. Oh Mercy, Oh Kindness,
address us all and only, sons and daughters of
renewed creation. Address us all, children of
Your kingdom where sighs are contentment
allied with love.