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.