Thanks for the struggle and pain,
If it weren't for these things,
My knees would never bend for humility,
My head would never look up crying for pity,
And my heart would never yearn for Your presence to reign.


In my weakness, Your strength is made perfect.

On the edge.
Watering cheap printed flowers
on rough and itchy blankets.
He listens to the heart he no longer wants
dwindle and die,
like a car wreck right before your eyes.
Brings you down by your soul,
in all the ways you used to flow.
Brings you down by calling your grandmother through your cry,
through the years of forgotten sighs
and now you're begging to
be brought home.

Come here.
Heart flutter to this day,
remember cheeky smile,
sweaty hair and the way
he made your world sway.
By the front of your shirt,
he brings you down to his level.
Through the hardwood floor,
he brings you down past dignity left at the door.
On the ground you know,
he brings you down past the crust.
Doesn't stop there,
he takes you to the center of the earth.

Back and forth,
vacant eyes search for remaining worth.
Pavement of past and present,
places you'll never know.
Sadness fills the dreaded sky,
reminds you of a certain time.
Ask yourself why.
You'll dig.
You can dig for two, three,
maybe four.
You can dig until there is nothing more.
Every ghost has a reason,
yours often come like different seasons.
Your a ghost of regret,
a ghost of treading slow.
But you are a ghost,
a ghost that they will always know.

740

You taught me Waiting with Myself—
Appointment strictly kept—
You taught me fortitude of Fate—
This—also—I have learnt—

An Altitude of Death, that could
No bitterer debar
Than Life—had done—before it—
Yet—there is a Science more—

The Heaven you know—to understand
That you be not ashamed
Of Me—in Christ’s bright Audience
Upon the further Hand—

called, "when I am dead"

and what came to mind, while
pecking away

were thatched roof cottages, hedgerows
all along a cliff,

and waves below whipping against
earth's spine

farther out were great swells
and black ships foundering

sea serpents were darting through
the green depths

this spectacle was silent, the screaming
men, the crashing waves

even the charcoal sky, threaded with a
thousand bolts of lightning

birthed no thunder, though I didn't
wonder why

I was supposed to among the dead
where vibrations abound

though none pound against
eardrums

such silence, I was told, was tantamount
to solace

but men were drowning, and fires leapt
across the waters

and no passage led up the cliffs to home
and sanctuary from this terrific tempest

you blew a hole
through my fragile skull
and planted dandelions to grow
inside of the soil
you poured
into it

make a wish before they're gone
*make a wish, baby, make a wish

come with me
you poor
you downtrodden
together we can raise the sky
where there are those
in a deeper circle of hell than yours
help them up
as one
we will take the next level
then the one above