GLORY IN THE DARKNESS
“Glory in the darkness” says the clock on the wall
“as your ship goes out through the ice”
“But the walls and floors obstruct us”
sing off-register voices from emptiness
“Charge inside lightning that dances at midnight”
calls the grass out the window still damp from dew
“Nowhere is without His activating Grace”
screams the fire truck siren hurrying down the street
Then the abiding silence laps back like surf
and the small noises pick themselves out of it again
The hand that writes this is as mortal as a moth
though in the script that flows are glimmers of first light
All our hearts are poised on eternity’s picket fence
watching both sides at once for signs and wonders
But to stand in the darkness with arms outstretched
is the ant’s way of glorying in the all-encroaching grandeur
And love’s way of holding us close to its mouth
to hear its single heartbeat reverberate past death
12/19/07 (from Tall Tales in Short Takes in progress)
