Two Meanderings

"Literal Translation"

חֶסֶד
Be it mercy
or lovingkindness
or longsuffering faithfulness
or dumping ice cold living water
into gaping whiny mouths wanting Egypt,
return to dust for heaven's honey bread?

Three letters etched in a people's soul,
Three letters capturing inexpressibility,
Three letters marking boundary
between howling winds of nothingness--
violent anti-everything,
expansive, but contained--
and rippling waves of prairie grass and a sky the size of Texas,
endless glittering ribbons caressing ocean's end,
the digits of pi,
the air at dusk, husky, golden--
solid ground fades and infinite beauty impossible expands
into a single chapter to Corinth
and a familiar radiant body.

ARH 7.17.08


"I, a Sinner"

Forgive it, Lord, that I should--no, do--
boast in my successes, petty and profound;
My personality, four capital letters
spelling out how I just am
(yeah, me and Gandhi!);
my intellect, best of friends,
barricade, companion, spectacles;
My weaknesses, or my gift for masking them--
faith in my weakness, idolatry!

The cross, the cross?
words fail.
boasting ceases.
silence.
weight.
my words must die.
Crucify!

ARH 7.2.07