For The Wait
Psalm 13,
A short letter of discontent penned before resentment could settle in
A series of questions
Heaven directed yet open-ended
“How long, LORD?
Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long will I store up anxious concerns within me, agony in my mind every day?
How long will my enemy dominate me?
Consider me and answer LORD my God.”
These questions from the 500 BC’s
lead me to proceed with the same energy on the things my soul sees and grieves
These my query’s
Is He passive?
Like an activist of actors gathered around fault lines that fractured
When holy beings ceased to be seen showing empathy
But actively diverting their energy from anything black, blue, and bloody
Sticky were my feelings of let down like silly putty
Sliding off the wall
A gracious, then stumbling fall into the pit of “He must not care”
Because if He knows what I see then He’s either not there
Or choosing to be unaware
Passive.
Is He bothered that I’m broken because they choked him?
Is He worried my jokes are more cynical after watching repeat cinema “Gerrymandered Jogger Meets Perforated Patriot.”
Salutations paper-thin and se-per-ate like the barracks my grandfather served in
Is He upset that sleep has left me?
That uncle Sandman sprayed bullets over baby girl and my homegirl’s 26th hit
D I F F E R E NT
A birthday in memoriam and our ability to feel a moratorium
Is He hiding?
When my eyes lift from the weight of US of A
Only to hear the same maternal cries wondering if their child will survive the night on that boat ride
Through the rough tide of Aegean seas
Seeking refuge reflecting the king of Galilee
Only to be met with Greco orthodoxy to say “cease”
Why'd Paul walk that land if the plan was to have the next generation of man turn their backs on the letters he penned?
How long are stowaways safe in God’s hand?
Is time up for Yemen, the Central African, the traded woman, and Rohingya Muslim
The weight of suffering seems overwhelming for them
The weight of suffering is overwhelming
It’s the wait.
God, do you see?
I know you saw Hagar and Tamar and showed up with a promise and punishment
A righteous judgment for violence
Your voice absent of silence
But this night
In the darkness
Your light seems the farthest.
Come, Immanuel
Come
Again.
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