At the River

Slight of Hand Albeit appears from the same deck a different hand of cards each do we get. Some flush with aces standard gold with them anyone can go bold. Others get mismatched and low suits on a rickety table to boot. What is in another’s hand you just do not know So you can not say in observing their play What a ridiculously stupid or wrong way to go. Or blurt a self-righteous “I would never have done that!” It’s impossible to know how you would act when your hand doesn’t hold the exact card-of-facts. So before you say about another’s play of their days What the heck! Ponder how against them may be stacked the deck. March 5, 2023 Oh, We Like Sheep! In every life seasons there are good reasons for the way in which Creation was done Lambs led to still waters in Psalms 23 is among the many one You and me are likened to lambs because we can be just like sheep pretty dumb Sheep's wool can absorb 60% of its weight in water before it will ever feel wet That’s why in winter endeavors in lands Hinter cold and wet to keep warm wearing wool is the bold’s best bet But a lamb drinking in rough waters would absorb so much water without ever blinking or even thinking she would be sinking and her Maker would soon back her get! July 30, 2022 Just Right Oh God, how I want a world without color vs white Where a woman can walk in safety in day or at night And children go to school without hunger or fright. It seems hard and heavy when Your yoke is easy and Your burden light. May I, today, with all of my might Be and do for my neighbor what You've taught me is right. September 14, 2020 Press Pause The cause for the pause may be sundry or few culling sleep from all dusks to every new dew Was it something you said or who’s been in your bed after promises made to whom you are wed? Perhaps the battle is in your head Though not caused by you, your Some One’s still dead. A childhood stolen with no such way to see through to justice that is much long overdue. Whatever the reason for the season you find yourself in whether accidental, unconscious or intentional sin Tend to your heart’s garden so bitter weed growth does not spirit, too, win. Be still in your pain until silence begins growing grace and forgiveness of self from within and Love’s healing insight dawns for you once again. October 12, 2022 Friends with Benefits Oh God of all and all divine Grateful am I that I am Yours and You are mine! Whether adding jewels to my crown or committing a crime You are there in an eye blink whenever I call. Not just to pick me up after pride’s fall but to ravish me with love for eternity’s all. I’m forgiven and cleansed; that’s all I know. In spite of the number of lines I don’t tow You paid the price for me and so I should to my neighbors joyfully go And into their broken hearts soils’ sow. The seeds of grace and love clear to eternity’s end All the while I have the privilege of Your calling me, friend. October 20, 2020 Seeing Things Throughout every season I’ve sought out a reason for my shut-eye being stuck on press-pause. Yet, to this 71st date but for just being fate I have not hit upon a remedy or epiphanied on cause. Reading a Barbara Brown Taylor book has prompted me to take another look at why I don’t sleep through the night though I’ve tried to do so with all of my might, that I may grow old with a brain that’s still right. Perhaps it is not meant to be within my own power that I solve my wakefulness at ungodly hours. After all, during the day with my busy ways I don’t have the time to write even one rhyme. It isn’t until I am stilled in the night that I am given vision rather than sight. April 6, 2023 Open Wide These days when it seems not eye to eye we much see I believe there’s something on which we all can agree And that’s on the one professional we least like to see With any - if at all - regularity With those twice-a-year cleanings I always comply But I’m not going to sit here and to your face lie! No, the love of the drill- it’s not a thing I can fake Oh, to have just brushed and flossed more and eaten less chocolate cake. I lose my nerve as down the canal the files go Like a gondolier, just more excruciatingly slow. In claiming as mine a real gold crown I would have to rob the biggest bank in town. I’m bracing for the day when Sissy’s teeth are finally straight And praying Junior’s can avoid a similar fate Otherwise, it’s back to my working overtime late. I’d rather not become an indentured anything Yet, those implants are such a chunk of cha-ching to get them means pawning my very best bling! Maybe I’ll solve the problem by making my teeth, oh so white that I mesmerize deer as I drive home at night. October 14, 2020