To be true

 

i.

I love your integrity 

and balance

Not one day goes by when I don’t admire

your thoughtfulness and brilliance

ii.

I have a library

But you are the true intellectual between us

I think everyone around us notices the same

I study and write what is speculative and controversial

You study the concrete

You dwell upon the practical,

the efficient 

I am a mere table of contents

You are the poem, the trilogy, 

the biography, the book

with the best binding

I learn more from your book 

and your teaching 

than from all other sources taken together

iii.

You love life and are grateful for it

You don’t complain

Instead, you rejoice when it’s appropriate

iv.

You grieve for others 

more than your own lot

You are the source of peace and contentment for others 

for every moment between

You’re genuinely interesting, too

Being artistic and crafty just adds to what makes you so immensely intriguing

You’re also logical, but not annoyingly logical

v.

You don’t boast in doing good

You just do good constantly, 

thinking of others, 

even with age appropriateness

vi.

You listen and consider

and learn and process 

prior to slight adjustments to your own convictions

vii.

It is the wise choice—taking into account techniques, timing, planning, and outcome—that becomes worthy of your consideration

You choose well, and that often reflexively, 

instead of choosing too much or too little as a habit

viii.

Like a plate full of garden varieties and delicacies, you always nibble with choice—rarely a mouthful, 

never any stuffing of face

You save for later so you can savor later

A to-go box

is for a full plate 

that you can foresee 

being impossible to finish 

ix.

I remain mesmerized that you listen, 

not so you can weasel around words 

to get your own thoughts in

but to hear and respect and work with others

And to make them feel heard 

You even choose to not listen at the most considerate times,

in order to be more productive and fruitful

A gracious spirit is evident the whole while, too, each and every time

x.

You work constantly

Your energy is as beautiful as you resting after a long day

When I peak at you while sleeping I think, 

‘I can’t believe this one is mine.’ 

Adding to all of this, you’re sexy, fun, exquisitely modest, and positively incandescent

xi.

You are honest and clear in communication, and cute in your mannerisms

You are winsome and kind, careful and patient, generous and courageous, loyal and dignified, stable and trustworthy, resourceful and blissful

You are the most admiral person I have ever known—the sweetest, gentlest, most natural embodiment of maternity, femininity, and coadjutricity

You are the most valuable friend of my life

xii.

Thank you for everything you are

Thank you for everything you do

I lack nothing with you

I lack nothing because of you

I love you

Thank you for loving me

Shoulder to Shoulder

When our nest is empty

we will still be

shoulder to shoulder

not just face to face

as mere friends

playing games

and killing time

Instead we will be 

building together

growing together

producing together

feasting together

waiting together

for that great city of the sun

Presanctified

Across my world is a hellish place

I am not welcome

It’s a hospital

And only a hospital

With an autistic chaplain

A frog that croaks to inmates

And a canine with longer fur than Jesus

 

It’s full of sickly patients

And no physician to be found

That is why we travel 

Across the plane

To the magic city

Where I am allowed to cry

And many others cry with me

When their streets flood

And candles go out

And doors close for the night

It’s because the gifts inside 

Receive our prayers

Hear our cries 

And cry along with us

Unconditional Love

 

What is that?

One’s excuse to retreat from the face of evil?

To become something magical and mythical?

To mimic the fictional deity we imagine to be?

To love all equally yet hate some of them more?

Which is it?

Some say it is the gift of Jesus, the son of god who is killed and made alive

Yet among the truly liberal it is spoken of as the charity of one 

 

who kills and makes alive

but who also makes alive and then kills

Blessed are all those who put their trust in him

Twelve hours

Over the valley and through the woods

A half day was spent seated, motionless

Then we arrived

And a curious young man

Locked the only door 

From the inside out

To the only room

To pay our water bill

To dump out our trash

After the handle was removed

From the outside

One might think

Disparagement would be unnecessary

But that door doesn’t swing both ways

If you plant corn

Don’t expect strawberries to grow

Humiliation is what precedes exaltation

Stupid decisions just delay that process

Holy resurrection

 

The spirits howl this morning

ready for worship — ready for war

I can hear them wanting to break glass

wanting to push through and invade

But these walls

built upon the foundation of martyrs

mortared with the hymns of holy ones

won’t let them

Its breath continues to hover and push back

Its black emblazoned stones cry out

Have mercy on us

and on the whole world

The end

 

Why so rude?

Because a pinnacle has been reached

It doesn’t matter what others think

Others don’t care

So others shouldn’t feel obligated either

Oh, but they do care

So I’m told

Oh, I get it

They are now

Now that honesty has entered the sanctuary

And clarity the conversation

Direct, principled, and prepared with zero bullshit

With a side of loyalty to those hate horseshit, too

The end