Fireflies

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John 19:1-3 (NIV)
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. [2] The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe [3] and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they struck him in the face.

Fireflies in the dark
Defined our early years together
Not the constant noise
Or social ostracism.

No.
Fireflies
More beautiful than
The man-made fireworks
We craned our necks to see

When you were that pesky
Little girl
He was already ahead of you
Closer to prison
Farther from the boy
I must find to love him.

Sometimes, I promise you
The only poetry here
Is in
every careless word
Missing
From our story.

I once

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I once lived in a country with high
Beautiful walls
Stone/mud/concrete
But most of all
Jagged glass
Broken/beautiful
Like a crown of pain
Stained glass warnings
Don’t come any closer
Danger.

Beware of dogs?
How do you say “Doberman”
In this other language
I knew a dead man who taught me this
And a boy I always loved
And feared
Who knew the future…

There Is more than one way
To die/to maim/to rape
A country/a people/a family/a man-woman-child

But one way for sure
Is to look the other way
When it is happening to them

And hope their blood appeases
Men trained like dogs for war.

The Ghosts

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We have to talk about it
Even though we don’t want to
The ways we are broken
The way the past haunts me

I don’t think it haunts you
The same
Like two different ghosts
Mine brings me beautiful picture
Then wryly points to
The darkness behind them

And yours
Merely piles
Rejection letters on your desk
From all the cool people
And the clubs they go to
Without us

Eclipse of Light

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It was a solar eclipse
Splashing darkness
Across half the earth
Like a child stretching his blanket
Across the bare
Wood staircase–
Upstairs young man!
His mother admonishes

Never realizing
His life is the smallest
Gossamer thread

From her life to mine

They say
if you try
To look
Directly into the sun
During an eclipse
Seek professional help

Do they mean scientists or
Psychology?

I won’t know.

I just
Know
That staring
Straight into the
Face of God himself
Is impossible hubris
Unless…
The shadow of the Cross
Shields the mortal
Eye

Forgiveness

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Definitions of forgiveness
1. The Man on the Cross bleeding love out in each dying breath
2. The little girl abused until she was five who is so afraid of hell (thanks to Dante Alighieri) who says:

Even though it still hurts
To know what Charles
Did to me
I don’t want him
To go to hell

The pain of it all
Never ebbing
From her beautiful
Face.

To see God…

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The trajectory of flight
And the living animal in it
The color of the leaves
And the way they
Flutter to the earth
Gravity
And it’s seemingly integral role
In mating
Our divided selves

I understand my friend ignores
All these signs of his Creator
Blithely…

My little boy walks into
The room to talk to me
Small words in utter sincerity
And the perfect miracle of his face
Divine.

How can you not see?
The gift this child is?
The soft reflection
Of eternity in his eyes

Rain Song

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Once
There was the statue
Of a girl
Standing arms outstretched
Poised/face lifted
To reach the rain
Receiving Grace

I looked for her again
Years ago
They had taken her away
I am crying/she is missing
And all I can do is call to her

Come back
My heartbreaking daughter
Come back to the Garden
Of stones alive and flowers
Blooming now
The rain has come

The bodies of our dead

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You will say to me
Why are you grieving?
And I will show you the limp form
In my hands

You will ask
What is it?
And I will say
A dead salamander

You will say
They cannot live for long
And I will say
But it had a name–
I cannot say it

And you will ask
What is the big deal?
And I will tell you
Hope.

But what I will not say is that the prone and lifeless
Body of a man
Too easily resembles
This ephemeral creature

The day I spent for him
The last day I spent for him
Looking for a hat
Big enough to cover his fatal
Head injury
Fatal head injury
Never far from mind
The bodies of our dead.

The Rain Dance

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I see the light
Pouring out
Over the lawn at night
The girls in their pretty
Dresses fan out in the lines
Demarcating light and darkness
Can you hear the haunting
Music?
I can
The strings of slow lament
The partygoers
Lurching toward the wrought
Iron gates
Boozy and fatigued
Wondering
who will show us the way home?