Things I Know to Be True

night-sung starlight

twinkling time-traveling

troupe playing out the same celestial

story, sure as the sun

 

a God-friend gazing upward, holding

a holy pledge,

a knife raised, a voice

a boy untied,

a birthright thief running for his life

met by night angels

 

arms raised lifting

a promise

waves heeding, holding mighty

heads to stand

and let a nation through

 

a hungry people catching

bread from the sky,

a slender boy slinging stone

singing,

a fugitive fish-swallowed and spat out

for love of wayward children

 

a trio of boy-men dancing

tall in a fire,

a prayer-man sleeping

with lions,

an anguished anger-hurling prophet met

with still, small voice

 

a people lost in darkness

silent, shuttered in shadow,

waiting

 

a star splitting

the sky, spilling the

sacred,

peasant arms holding

eternity

 

a woman desperate touching the frayed

hem, the first shock

of healing

 

a dead girl

singing,

Lazarus walking

forth,

a kneeling leper rising,

whole

 

a thirsty woman

filled

a woman circled by dropped

stones,

a harlot anointing grasping

holiness

 

a traitor fed, forgiven

recommissioned

a murderer blinded

on the road

a thousand thousand people running

to the light

 

a circling planet hungering

hoping, waiting

afraid

a Word sent forth, gathering

gold

 

pink-tinged clouds receiving

morning peace

rising sure, unfailing

true like new mercies