God's Eye

We didn’t have those rained out
Yellow-stain,
No sky problems.
We weren’t choking in the conventional sense.
No – we suffered from long days,
Dawn that always came too soon,
& Open skies.
The night gave birth to our children,
The day buried our dead.
We listened to the murmuring,
Even after the dawn.
With voices that hovered above roadside carcasses,
Water that bred insects,
The last pumpkins of Halloween
& The extremities of paper & pills.
I may forget many things,
But the missing fingertips of my gloves
Revealed my teeth – broken from the sharp Truths
My tongue forces through.
I’m sorry I couldn’t find my voice that day.
It may have been too early in the war,
Or too many battles in.
The village offered an enchantment,
Slow in growth,
Persistent in existence,
That would change our eternity.
You were the boy, who closed the book,
Your chapter done.
You were the boy who thought
He could kill the trappers of God.
Did you think the Old Crow was telling your fortune?
Wealth, Fame, Romance?
Instead she whispered off a string of numbers –
I don’t believe 20 years was enough?
That 30 yards would be all you’d walk?
That 1 match would be all it took?
It was one of those moments,
Bright-eyed, ruddy cheeked,
Breathless moments.

No brimstone contract,
Signed in blood.
The promise I made that day,
Was with the devil within.
I will tell them for you –
Close your mouths,
Dry your tears.
I will keep the memory
Etched in ink, permanently in the flesh.
For when I see you again,
We will show them that One was not enough
For us.
I will bring my naked soul,
Still tattooed with questions
& Temporary answers,
I will rip them free in testament to God.

For a moment the sea will stop churning,
The winds will still, & the earth will pause her turmoil.
None will notice that the world has skipped the beat –
But it will be enough for us –
Because we,
Together,
Will have brought a tear to God’s eye.