A Different Degree

A Different Degree

When every footprint sinks to a different degree,
displacing the mud or sand beneath the weight of
one single
human being,
we detect the evidence of another life form
to speak and eat with, to smile and tease with,
to joke and to wander the skies from sunset horizon
to midnight apogee. We who walked the same woods alone
turn full circle more than once or twice over, expanding
its diameter three feet at a time to discover
another to break the silence of the hillside forest,

Until turning the last degree, on the periphery of vision
we meet. My heart stops, my hands shake, my mouth so dry
that words are pasted on my tongue and down my throat;
yet so anxious to speak after speaking has nearly been forgotten.

I turn full and final, the circle that meets you eye to face,
and, though no words are spoken, I see you are dressed
far too conservative for me

And turn the circle round with my footprints sinking
to a different degree behind me.

The Liberal Air

The Liberal Air

("So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come." John 7:30)

The liberal air filled the lungs and enriched the red cells
of those who would capture the Righteous and arrest the progress
of the miraculous. The liberal air filled the lungs of
the Son of God as well.

Oh, front-liners, protectors of truth and keepers of the rules,
the same mud that made you, made them, made us; the
same air that enwraps the world in its invisible giftwrap
seeps between the cracks, mazes its way around leaves unfallen,
fastens itself to molecules we’ve observed for the world’s tiniest
percentage. Oh, storm-leaders, pressing the crowds backwards
to possess the real estate you’ve planted your hopes upon,
your conclusions are forgone, not because you wished for better;
you deduction is simply wrong.

I like the air that lets us fly while bystanders scratch their heads
and wonder why they cannot get their feet off the ground. Lower the
pressure
over my wings and let the time sweep the crackling folks whose
throats are sore from accusing left to right and back, into silence.
And give them a plaque unworded, a silly mirror of reminder.

The liberal air cooled the brow, stirred by angels, but mostly friends
happy to be so illiterate they never heard the indictment. The day ended
as it began, the peace of breezes winding through the evening. And time,
which never stands still, slowed the imperceptible passing of seconds
until the façade-squad and all gone home.

The few who loved the way air felt filling their lungs, enriching
the coursing blood and clearing their head of opinions unfounded,
rounded another corner with the Master, putting the matter to bed
until the next story He told wiped away one more conclusion about
why the air was so available and never taxable.

Keep Listening

God’s Message; “Guard my common good: Do what’s right and do it in a right way. For salvation is just around the corner, my setting-things-straight is about to go into action… Make sure no outsider who now follows God ever has occasion to say, ‘God put me in second-class. I don’t really belong.” Isaiah 56:1, 3a

Why do people classify themselves as “conservative” and “liberal”? It seems these labels cause divisions more often than they define anything. And, do these labels help our spiritual life at all? Here God says that we should be careful to guard the common good; doing what’s right and doing it in the right way.