Root it Out

If I have walked with falsehood;
my foot hastened
to deceit;
then
let me be weighed
 in a just balance;
let God know
my integrity.

If my step has turned aside
from the way;
my heart gone after
my eyes,
if any spot has stuck
to my hands,
then
let me sow;
another eat;
let what grows
for me
be rooted out

Root it out
Root it out
Turn it over
No matter how tall
No matter how green
No matter the flower
Or color of the fruit,
Go ahead
Root it out
What grows for me
Root it out
And just
Throw it on the pile
_______________
Job 31:5-8

Ames Story

I leaned forward
 as I sat down
My shirt was wet with June –
from running afternoon
 suburban errands
in a weak AC’d old car
still leaking freon
into the ultraviolet ozone hole
between
God’s green earth
 and her nearest
star.

I leaned forward
 as I sat down
in the big old armchair,
trying hard to avoid any
 human contact
with good upholstery –
as my mother might want,
but never expect,
 from her husband-dear
after a long day
of hand-nailed carpentry
on the lime hills near
the lake.

He smiled,
eyes wide –
like yours and mine
 once were –
and came up close,
 his face to mine,
to get a better look
 under my cap,
then went to play
with the small toys
and puzzles on the
green-pegged lego table
beside his mother.

She encouraged him.

Hey buddy,
let’s show grandpa andy
the book we found
at the library.

Amesy, Ames!
Where is your book?
Where’s your new story?
Maybe it’s in the car -
or still outside?
Should we look?

He turned, nodded –
smile, yes-but uncertain.

She encouraged him.

Amesy, Ames
Let’s go look
together.
Let’s find your story.
Come with me –
hold my hand.
Let’s go look.


It was a short story;
full of color –
a poet’s biography.

In the Name

Everyone knows my
memory’s poor;
It’s not much good,
But here it is.

There’s a man on the corner
Holding a sign,
Asking for help -
A blessing -
Lord know what he needs.

Lord knows, everyone knows,
My word’s not much good,
But here is His.

Bless you in the name
Of the Lord!
Be blessed
In the name of the Lord.

She’s sitting on a cooler
Holding up a hand,
Calling to me
A blessing.
Lord knows what she means.

Lord knows, everyone knows,
My name’s not much good,
But here is His.

The Lord bless you;
all of yours!
The Lord be with you
And keep you
Safe from harm.

Blessings of the Lord
Be upon you!
Bless you in the name
Of the Lord!

_______________________
For Jane and her Grandpa
They are both busted up today.

58 On the Way

My love -
I'm sorry I woke you
with the light above
the coffee maker.
It’s all I could find
with curtains closed -
in the early dark matter,
before the sky was full
and the cup was empty.

Forgive me.

Anyway –
You ever think you’d
turn fifty-eight on the way
to Phoenix,
Sierra pickup packed
in the parking lot
of a hotel in Santa Fe
 that is, like us,
forever, still and always
under construction?

Don’t leave me.
___________________

Psalm 119:130

The unfolding of your words gives light;
it imparts understanding to the simple. (ESV)

On the New Job

Congratulations again, friends,
on the new job –
on the new home,
on the new place
you ain't even been in, yet.

Hope we see you again, friends,
one day up there –
in that new home,
in that new place
nobody’s even been in yet.
_____________

On our friends Brian, Keri, Cate, Wes, and Gus going off to Olympia, Wa.

Take It to Charley's

There's something wrong.
It just quit making noise.
It’s not talking to me
like it used to -
like it did
when my hair was long
and we were working.

I’m going to take it in
when I get back
from Colorado.
I’ll take it to Charley’s
when I get home.
He’ll know what to do.

We used to go together,
everywhere, and some.
It all made sense to me -
I think to you too.
Yes, it did.
When my hair hung long,
you and I were working.

I’m going to take it in
when I get back
from Colorado.
I’ll take it to Charley’s
when I get home.
He’ll know what to do.

_____

Brooks Martin lamenting a lost love

A Few Words

A few words before we go:

Lord knows, your Father loves you.
But he’s not a jealous man.
The pastor heard him say
He’s okay with us holding hands
On the way home from church.

__________________________
Matthew 22:34–40

The Great Commandment

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (ESV)

Poached Eggs

Shook the shaker. Looked.
No little specks. Not one.
Shook the shaker. Looked.
No pepper there. None.
Shook that sucker. Looked
a bit closer. Salt.
Wrong one.

Where it Sat

I don't live in the old house, but I know the road to turn down and where it sat and where the worst grassburrs were always at, where the barn was and where even bermuda grass wouldn't grow in the gravel-sand arc of its dragging tin door, where the garden grew best in the grey water wash, where okra, tomatoes and corn stood green, red and tall and where cucumbers, watermelons and cantaloupe climbed carelessly into the pen where the kids' calf was kept until it was gone one day, where the good water faucet was - a bit farther than a too-short hose from where the trash was burned smoking in the soot-choked thin corroding barrel beneath the big beanless mesquite, where the first board was just high enough to remind little brother of whose tree house it was up there.

The Remnant of the Trees

She swept the trampoline 
with the big blue push-broom.

We leave it out down there so the kids don’t have to get into the wood-framed storage shed, which still has no electricity and sometimes shelters wasps and larger beasts.

She found it where it often is – 
beneath the big hackberry,
beside the galvanized pipe frame 
on a drying dune of sticks and leaves -
detritus gathered there in that darn low spot
by the silent slowing of the last flash flood.

She is still not quite as tall as the broom is long.

As they all do – did we teach them that – 
she tossed the broom on the mat,
its stiff-black bristles poking and peeking 
through ragged holes and rusted springs,
before she climbed the crumbling cream 
and dark-moldy vinyl chair, removed her shoes, 
and swept.

After she jumped for bit
(and spoke in whispers to a hidden world), 
we went for a bike ride around the block, 
through the gravel in the neighbor’s empty lot, 
backtracked to the monkey bars at the elementary school, 
drove around in circles on their basketball court 
and the parking lot full of empty moms' parking spaces,
then returned home.
We rode faster than usual and didn’t stay long in any one place.

We kicked the leaves away
from the french-door threshold,
pushed our bikes inside the guest house,
and hung our helmets on the bars.
She went straight down to the trampoline.
And, just like she promised,
Grandma came out and joined her,
 shoes off and everything.
They laughed and jumped together 
 until she had to sit down. Grandma.

They lay on their backs and pointed
to a perfect blue February sky,
to, way-up, a jet and its straight contrail,
to a white heron gliding barely above the branches
of the big oaks and elms,
to the dying hackberry
with the hollow yellow trunk 
where the family of squirrels live 
when the hawks will let them.

We soaked it in. We remembered.
We talked about when the big branch fell,
(the one that held the old blue-rope swing,
not the new blue-seated rope one; it’s doing fine),
and how were we going to trim such a giant
 of its many dangling dead branches 
without someone getting hurt.

Then we went inside. 
She got her coat and backpack together,
climbed into the recliner with her Grandma,
and while we waited for her dad to get home,
I told her we were leaving.

_______________________
Isaiah 10:19

The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few
that a child can write them down. (ESV)

A City to Dwell In

I am a prideful prince,
Covered only in contempt,
Hungry and thirsty,
Wandering in the waste,
Longing for one last taste
 of cool water, fresh flowing springs,
Searching for a city
 for my soul to dwell in.

What Do You Have to Do with Peace

Now the watchman was standing
On the tower in Jezreel.
He saw the chariots of Jehu
As he came and he said,
“I see a company.
I see a company come toward us.”

The king of Israel spoke,
“Take a horseman and
Send to reach them,
And let him say,
‘Is it peace?
Is it peace between us?’”

So, a man rode out
From the son of Jezebel.
A man rode out to meet him -
The anointed, appearing
 Before the tower of Jezreel.

And the messenger spoke,
Thus said the king, Is it peace?

Jehu answered,
What do you have to do with peace?
Turn around and ride,
Turn around and ride behind me.

And the watchman spoke
About the messenger,
“He has reached them,
But I can see
He is not coming back.
No, he is not coming back.”

So, a man rode out
From the son of Jezebel,
A man rode out to meet him -
The anointed, approaching
The barren vines of Jezreel.

He answered,
What do you have to do with peace?
Turn around and ride,
Turn around and ride behind me

__________________________________
2 Kings 9:17–20,1 Kings 21:15–16 (ESV)

Be Silent All Flesh

Be silent, all flesh

I’ve heard enough

 From the proud liars,

Troublemakers,

  From mouthpiece lawyers,

 Kindness fakers.

Be silent, all flesh

I’ve heard enough

 From the loudspeakers,

Fine citizens,

 From the truth killers,

Politicians.

Be silent, all flesh

I’ve heard enough

 From the false prophets,

Altar robbers,

 From My alms profit,

Idle worshippers.

Be silent

Chorus

Be silent, all flesh,

 before the Lord,

For he has roused himself

From his holy dwelling

________________
Zechariah 2:13

Hear in Heaven

If there is a famine
In the land –

Hear in heaven

If there is pestilence,
Blight, or mildew;
Locust or caterpillar -

If their enemy
Besieges them
In the land,

At their gates -

Whatever plague
Whatever sickness
There is –

Hear in heaven

Whatever prayer
Whatever plea
Is made

By any man 

Or by all your people,
Each knowing the affliction 

Of his own heart,

And stretching out his hands
Toward this house, then

Hear in heaven

Hear in heaven,
Your dwelling place,
Forgive and act,

Render to each
Whose heart you know
According to all his ways

That they may fear you
All the days
That they live 
In the land 
You gave 

To our fathers

Hear in heaven,
For you,
You only,
Know the hearts
Of all the children
Of mankind

For you,
You only,
Know
You only, know
The hearts
Of all the children
You 
Hear in heaven
__________________

1 Kings 8:37–40

“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar, if their enemy besieges them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever plea is made by any man or by all your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways (for you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind), that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our fathers. (ESV)

The Carpenter

Timbers new,
Planed smooth,
Joined square,
Set there,
Upright,
Plumb and true

On this work,
His best,
The carpenter
Broke his back
That I may rest
Justified