These are the days that try our souls.
There have been others similar,
Time out of minds ago.

Take heart.
Lift up your heads.
The One who saved the multitudes is there
To take our dread.

Take courage.
Lift up your arms.
The One is with us through all harm.

Take peace.
Rest in the thought that life
Or death in Him will please.

Take comfort now, for later.
In life, in death,
He is our Savior.

Old men stumbling,
Old women wading,
Descending into waters black.

River's force draws
Once steady Time
Into Lethe's murky flow.

Cares fall away,
Worry holds no more...
All swept from sensate shore.

Ever pulling,
Relentless River Lethe
Drowns even sweet relief.

The difference between
            a flower and a ****,
Is only our recognition
            of our momentary need.

Has come and done his very worst.
She's gone and isn't coming back,
And all her things, though not at first,
Will leave this dry old place as we unpack
Her dishes and her books, her pretty things
That kept her grand kids from her place
And gathered dust on shelves and every open space.

I find myself thinking
Everything feels like Sunday
With no choir,
No homily,
No audible absolution.

No Monday in sight, nor Tuesday,
Though the sanitation truck appears
To let us know that time goes on,
That effluent must run to sea,
That wages must be paid,
That sidewalks must be cleared
Of dust or falling snow,
Though we ourselves
Are growing cold.
So it is we dwindle.

Young horses skitter, so riders beware
Their temperaments flighty,
They launch into air
At the drop of a cap
Or a jackrabbit's leap
They blow up in a second;
You'll land in a heap.

Old horses are easy, calm to the end,
Content to stand faithful and waiting,
Patient with kids and old men,
Almost never unnerved,
They'll take you home always,
Unconscious or tired or drunk,
They're used to your unspoken ways.

Frost thickens at dawn,
Rumbling salt truck rattles by
Before snow's assault.

Skin turns numb plastic
Five minutes exposed to air
Fifty degree wind chill

No bird chirps nor flies;
Young ash borers freeze and die;
Cold saves old ash trees.

Beneath frozen mud
Spring peepers sleep winter's death
Waiting the spring thaw.

Eskimo, my wife,
Dressed in down, coiffed now in fur,
Radiant in snow.

When a boy, I knew
No greater love than the hunt
Through deep snow for hares.

North winds fierce bring cold,
Drive me gasping to shelter.
Exhilaration!

No one sleeps outside
With impunity for long;
It's January.

Her fantasy now?
The "polar plunge" with her friends...
And our friendship ends.

River birch flowers hang green-gold,
Dangling earrings on beautiful ears;
Morning sun about to break horizon
I never tire of spring, however old;
Her call to life again brings my heart cheer;
I live on promises; Spring delivers here.

A billion, billion blades of grass stand dewed,
Reflecting golden light of rising sun;
They put me in an easy-breathing mood -
Another war with winter has been won.
Now shall I venture out to breathe spring air,
The smell of earth announcing fertile loam,
And I shall leave behind my winter care,
My thrilling blood has stirred me up to roam.

Cherubs fed and washed, lie slumbering.
In dying light, in gathering gloom,
Upon the shadowed floors of living room,
Picking up the toys that scattered lie,
Stooping, she sighs to gather scattered things,
Orders them to wait awhile till morning.
Toys rest with arms akimbo, heads a-droop.
Stuffed bears and rabbits sag and dream.
She finishes the tidying and leaves the room.
She smiles a weary smile that lightens gloom,
Remembering when she was herself, alone.

Watched the Lord come to the garden.
Heard the Voice call softly, “Adam.”
In anticipation, licked his lips,
Felt shivers in his snake-ish hips.

Still no movement from the bushes;
Human forms still held their breath;
Chortling serpent, breathless, waited
In the garden where came death.

I wonder now
Did Job's wife speak
The Devil's words,
"Curse God and die"?

Was Job's test the culmination,
The diabolical, canny ending,
The checkmate of temptation
To end the human nation?

"Curse God and Die."
These words give thinkers chills.
The brutal question, "Why?"
Faith-stifling word that kills.

Job's friends, his wife, his circumstance,
Combined his wounds to salt;
In misery, he sought the Lord, to stand,
And prove his misery was not his fault.

Job knelt before the Lord at last,
In yielding he found life;
For him, the test was passed;
But what about Job's wife?

To Death:
Drought
or
Floods.

Forgive me, sir, forgive me,
I think I'll just walk by;
I see unbridled anger;
I hear voices shouting high.

Cinders in your voices,
Fire in the skies,
I'm weary of your anger;
I think I'll just pass by.

Venom on the posters,
Riots in the air;
The innocent are losers
If anybody cares.

So, forgive me kindly, sister,
I think I'll pass you by;
I've lover, home, and children,
I must reach before the fight.