Loose change

Loose change                                                                                    

The taste of love is bitter in my mouth.

I can’t swallow it; I can’t spit it out.

Give me the definition of love -- 

          but don’t use any words.

I’ve been given enough words.  

All day long I beg for it

but, at night, when I empty my pouch –

there’s nothing but loose change.

How will this beggarly life ever make me rich?

Show me where to dig to strike the secret vein.

How do I split myself open just right

so that key of Yours might be

inserted into the padlock?

O child of God, in your quest for wealth, ask yourself,

‘Who is the one so impatient and dissatisfied?’

                        (from A Jewel in the Dust)

A taste for crow

A taste for crow                                                                       

I used to pray for a heartskin

bursting with wine.  Now I ask for milk.

I used to study dervish tales, now I listen

for my grandfather’s ghost

sweeping the hallways of the old junior high.

On my return from star-gazing last night,

I tracked the temple floor with mud.

I prayed to the Holy Ghost, elbowing aside  

the fellow on the prayer rug next to me.

This dream of realization is covered in dust.

I’m reluctant to smudge my clean white gloves …

or to acquire a taste for crow.

My heart is a star, burning blue-white, but 

yielding no warmth across space.

O child of God, Your Beloved is everywhere,

yet diligently you guard the gates of your true Self.

                         (from A Jewel in the Dust)

Jesus for adults

Jesus for adults                                                                                 

“Suffer the children to come unto Me.”

I was a child when I first heard those words.

‘Suffer’, it was explained to me, means ‘allow’.

Jesus for adults in our church

was the Lamb of God, but to the children

He was the Shepherd and we were His flock.

Later, from Meher, I learned Jesus was not here

to save me from the cross

but to show me the Way to hang,

shouldering that weight for me

as far up the hill as He could get.

Suffering real, unavoidable, bitter as gall,

heavy as those rough-hewn timbers;

sharp as spikes and thorns.

Jesus loved the adults from high on a cross

but He took the children into His arms, heart to heart,

teaching that our love for Him

is as important as His love for us.

O child of God, surrender is the way of liberation.

To suffer means to allow.

                        (from A Jewel in the Dust)