The Prepared Abode

The Prepared Abode

(“The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.” Psalm 145:9)

It’s not over yet, our journey has barely begun.
From packing it all up to fleeing like the sun.
We can follow the ways of the wind,
investigate every sound from burping frogs to
fizzing hummingbirds.
There have been craggy razors on the rocky edges
of the ascent we chose. There are pebbles in
our shoes as we start the way back downward.

Here I am to greet you at the other end of the road.
I’ve been waiting for the announcement that you
are just around the corner.
We both took the long way, didn’t we. We smelled
the dangers in the dust firsthand. We even contemplated
turning back more than once. The nuances of the path
sometimes took us by surprise.

It’s still not over, even after you arrive. We’ll recount
our stories
like vagabonds slogging through our messy investigations
into numerous dangers we dodged and the times we
fainted without cause. We thought we might have to
pay our dues on the overdrafts we wrote against the
skies of patience. But

We arrived finally and understood the haven of rest
that waited our winding trek over trust and uncertainty.
Between here and there we were rejected by
handfuls who has sworn their devotion. The misinterpreted
our detours that took the long way around
their biases and preoccupations.

It’s no over yet, our sojourn will continue I suppose,
walking the world like a drifter counting planets
in the midnight sky. From front to back we knew
we never lacked what pulled us on. We found our
home in the company we kept treading upon the
earth until we discovered the prepared abode.

The Wet Wind Splattered

The Wet Wind Splattered

(“Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a pledge.” 2 Corinthians 5:5)

He felt the air’s unknown quantities as
the wet wind splattered against his face. Where
had the raindrops vacationed before they
landed
on the field beneath his feet?

He had always dreamed of a
house by the ocean.
He lived on the prairie instead.

The siding is nearly complete on the
new house around the corner.
The workmen eat at the Mexican café.
They order tacos,
he ordered a burger.
They drank water,
he had a beer.

It split his day in half to
sit in the back. He opened his book
and hurried to the end of the chapter,
anxious to start the next one on his list.
But today he felt disconnected

From
the world, though he talked to the waitress,
though he waved at his neighbor.

He was younger yesterday but older
than Monday. He wanted to put away
every tilted distraction that keep him wandering
between tears barely forming,
sighs barely storming on the horizon like
the next thunderstorm chasing him,
breath and step.

He mostly smiled in public, no one deserved
his weepy face. Reserved only for those who
knew already
the source of his distemper, his misadventure
on nearly every piece of land he had paced.

But the rain still dropped from ocean to fields of grain,
the thunder still rumbled after the hidden lighting struck
nowhere
in particular.
Someone might say he was mostly sour, finally
assessing his silence. Taking his sadness as
ego, they withdrew their offer of condolence. He
withdrew from his own self too.

II.

You do not have a bad attitude.
You

Are

alone.

III.

He was only looking
for his way
home.

Never in Shadow

Never in Shadow

“For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:7)

Never in the shadows, never shrouded by raucous trombones;
He will not arrive in secret this time, nor hidden beneath the
world’s auto-phonic songs.

The silence will be smashed, the humming shattered by the
blast that disrupts each foolish pursuit; begun, newly ended
 or in-between. The Son of Man will not wait for each
bank account to be depleted and each investment,
replete with final bell percentages. The Master
returns on His own terms, without searching the
critics’ reviews.

Ready; He has published His arrival this time.
Prepared; He will not knock faintly.
Look up; He will flash, will thunder.
Awake; the sleeping will be startled,

The observant, with faces shining like the silver mirror,
the silky river reflecting the sun, will not know

Whether to stand and cheer,
fall and weep,
kneel and pray their name is inscribed
(reason and faith, the cross and grace are the
preface to the Book the Lamb authored of life).

In the twinkling of an eye all history will flash,
an orb embracing an orb; and time will meet
head to tail…when the Son of Man

Wipes the dark-storm wonder from the panorama
of human falter and the Divine Again.