Status Updates From The Jubilee: Poems

Be careful what you wish for.
If you wish to be a man’s man
You might find yourself at the end
A hard-pressed man who missed
The daily frailties that soften you
Allowing you to close your eyes
And Rest In Peace. Perhaps the
Grander wish is to be a woman’s man
...Those are the men missed when
They are finally gone.

He sits with his mother in room 710.
The pain from her broken back is not
Quite so proud today so they seize the
Chance to talk because they both know
Time is thinning...
He sits in her waiting, yielded and still.

I often walk beside a creek with no name
Bursting with frog song. They’re singing
“Shenandoah.” Or at least that’s what I hear.
As I walk I dream dreams of my father
And the love I feel for that unsung man...

Until your tears have fermented
They are only water,
Easily mistaken for raindrops.
But should you endure the season
Your grief might turn to wine,
Your sadness might become
The spirit others will travel
Far and wide to taste...

She loved him because
His ways were gentle.
How he came to be like
That she did not know
And did not care.
It was enough that he was.
He always greeted her
The way morning breaks,
Sharp but soft.

One of the seraphim flew to me
With a live coal in each hand and
Laid them upon my eyes.
And I saw the great deception was not
That we could be like God
But that we were bred solely for utility.
Then a voice gentle as rain said,
“Now, go tell them they were born
To be monumental in the sun.”