Coughs in the Night/God's Heavenly Tease

70 year old Steve with a bum foot, who listened patiently to my righteous, indignant rant.  "Check out Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, " he suggested.  Maybe someday, if and when I am back in the game again, homeless still...


The young Latina bundled head to toe in the MacDonalds at 6:30 a.m., with an obviously painful, wrapped up foot, limping,   homeless still...


I have seen third world scenarios in one of the richest areas in this universe.  It is heartbreaking--Is this why I am here Lord?  To break open my heart,  to experience a deep, deeper compassion? 

In  this most prosperous and selfish country of ours, whose leaders I am so disappointed in,  so disappointed in the powers that be, in those who have established rigid 20th century doctrines and guidelines, whose walls have yet to crumble even as the current infrastructure is imploding...

The darling dark-haired boys with faces like cherubs
And souls just as sweet
Mexican Mama  with her mellow temperment
Trudging off,  down the road,  next to  the ferocious  freeway,
Walking  down the flashing- early morning- exhaust- filled  Main Street
Getting her brood on the bus
Another day
Off to their school
Homeless still...


The fifty-something former nurse who can listen to all the varying
Coughs in the night
And pinpoint:  pneumonia, whooping,  flu,  TB
She herself treads nearly barefoot on flipflops
Her mission for the day?
Chemo for breast cancer,
Homeless still...


Choking  back the tears, plowing them asunder
You reap what you sew----Do you???????????

And so the tears flow
But as I press the MacDonald napkin to my face
I know that I have to suck them up RIGHT NOW,
To bite it
To come away from the sweet sorrow in my soul
Where,  like a deep pool, the emotions swirl...
And face the day.

 
The drumbeat of my determined ambition
Not to sink below the dark waves
Propelling me ever forward
Like an ever-fragile, ever-flopping,
Ever- failing, ever- floating feather
In this never-ending whisper,  breeze,
Tornado-
Tease of life. . .

Heavenly Shaft

Heavenly shaft of light-
What dreams may come,
Which crash then burn
Who's  on the run to capture
The essence of
Angelic sight

Wings of love
God's holy shaft
What friends may come
Which crash then burn
Which friend or foe
Cause me to run

White lit horizon of heavenly grace
What smile runs upon my face
What sorrow's depth
What laughter might
Turn this soul away from night

Above the gleam
In a heavenly eye
Below a spark of earth's delight
What dreams may come
What love sustains
Only light from the heavenly shaft remains.