Never Sleeps

While a pastor on the Fort Berthold Reservation I was honored with the Indian name, "NeverSleeps". It was primarily because I was often responding to particular needs in the middle of the night.

Even more relevant, the Lord Himself, Maker of all, "Never Sleeps".

Surely you know.
Surely you have heard.
The Lord is the God who lives forever,
who created all the world.
He does not become tired or need to rest.
No one can understand how great his wisdom is.

Isaiah 40:28

Welcome to every reader. I am a simple follower of Jesus. He is perfect, I often fall short.

Showing posts with label wet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wet. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

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.

Thursday, June 6, 2019

In Wet Cement


In Wet Cement

(“I will put inside them a new way of thinking. I will take out the stubborn heart of stone from their bodies, and I will give them an obedient heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 11:19)

I’m not sure how it happened, so long ago,
perhaps when I was walking, perhaps fighting the undertow,
but it dropped out of my pocket, it fell out of my chest,
I swear this is how it happened,
I dropped my heart in wet cement.

The sun baked it clearly, cured the sidewalk well,
and for a while I kept on walking, for a few steps no one could tell
that, hardening beneath the pavement, beating slowly to death,
I swear I didn’t realize,
I dropped my heart in wet cement.

Can you walk the foothills, heart out of mind;
can you swim the sparkling rivers with your heart left far behind?
Can you answer the questions, can you offer your best,
when,
I swear this is how it happened,
I dropped my heart in wet cement.

No one walked on me, only over and around,
perhaps their own hearts lie buried deep and glued to the ground.
Did they drop out of their pockets, fall out of their chests?
I swear this is how it happened,
when
I dropped my heart in wet cement,

I kept on singing, praying and spelling
the name of god and his son in proper terms and failing
to hear the absent heartbeat; the cavity in my chest.
I swear this is when it happened
to the heart I dropped in wet cement.

I was undone, unsung, prayed and faded as an
old west calico dress.
I was kneeling, unfeeling, ached and lithic as the
old glacial boulders at rest.
I could not move, though I moved often,
I was not free, though I sang like a strong man.
I was retreating, unseated, frayed and begging as an
old warrior with little left.

But I was sung like morning, I was recited like dew,
I forgot the old, the dusty, the hobbled days
when, new as creation, I welcomed the invasion
of a gentler hand than the sand and grit
that held me so long when
I dropped my heart in wet cement.