W & B: My Boys

Two snuggly terrors
My charming sons
The joyful, fearless ones.

Standing atop the kitchen table
Giggling
Waiting for
Congratulations on the climb.

Tears and fears
of misunderstanding:
Sickness, exhaustion, earaches.

Running to greet me
Arms open wide
Ready for flight.

The full spectrum
joy and fear
encompassed in their embrace.

**I assigned my students the task of writing a tribute poem. I thought it only fair that I write one as well. ***

Reminders:
Testing, Stupidity, Pain, or Abuse.
Physical, Mental, Spiritual.
Visible and Hidden.
Wisdom and Memories.

Imperfect Healing.

“… by his stripes we are healed.” Is. 53:5

(It’s important to never take yourself too seriously…Enjoy. Props to you if you can catch all the literary allusions)

the hardy maple

with its leafy tentacles

is a little twig that got bigger

the grass isn’t always hair

from uncut graves

it’s green and smells good

every hour is not metaphor

for the caged birds

occasionally refuse to  sing

the gum on the bottom

of my heel is a nuisance

not the spitted

image of  the Mona Lisa.

The Eastern Star
must have hum

with static joy

of the Holy One.

Beneath its light

the Child’s first cry

cradled by the

virgin mother.

Eternity changed.

The world awaits:

A final choice.

Revere the child

sleeping in the trough

beside the cattle

Mysterious possibility

that this child’s death

at thirty-two,

Made way for me

to spend my days and

all of eternity

In the light of the

Holy One.

You are a foul charlatan,

ensnaring the best intentions

in webs of deceptive warranty.

A clever contrivance of Satan,

Leave it, lagging, delayed, belated.

For tomorrow is ever so remiss,

a day, an hour, a minute too late.

This is a found poem which means these words are not my own.  I simply rearranged them in a more poetic fashion. They were spoken by a 17 year old boy in a special education classroom.  I was moved by his sincerity and the nature of his definition of love. It is easy to judge young people because their decisions and mistakes are so obvious to us who have gone through it.  We have wisdom that can rarely be gained except through experience.

All those I love yous were lies.

I made her cry all the time.

I should have let my friend go at her

while I had the chance.

Let them do what they had to do,

and get it over with.

Now, we got nothing.

The mystery of the Deity

cloaked in frail

 humanity.

A heavenly conspiracy

to save us from our 

vanity.

We could not apprehend

This astounding

plan,

So

We crucified

the Son of Man.

My soul aches

for this generation

who do not seek Your face.

While I smile

and say soft hellos

to these faces that may

never know.

Wear it like

An old t-shirt

Soft, contoured

Tattered

Comfortable,

Reliable

Broken.

 “Who will have all men to be saved,

and to come unto the knowledge of the truth”

            1 Timothy 2:4 KJV

Jesus, none other,

initiates action upon

the whole quantity

of the human race

to be: in the state of

preservation.

Linking identical comparatives:

And

infinitively travel toward

the justified belief and experience of

God.