Doctor Grandma

When I am old,

I’ll fear the night,

when monsters rise

from under the bed,

and doubts appear

to haunt your sleep,

and no sun shines to guide you,

when fears come through

the fabric of dreams

appear more real

than what they are,

they whisper storms and tragedy

and darkness folds around you,

But morning comes and fears subside,

Sunrise reds will light the sky,

The owls retreat to parts unknown,

the birds in song remind you,

Another day has dawned.

cfblack 04-05-2021

As a child,

I liked Palm Sunday

more than Easter.

It made more sense to me

than the story later.

The people waving palms

to greet His entrance,

Him smiling back at them,

upon a donkey,

all the while knowing

their imminent betrayal

would soon bring His life to an end.

Their inability to match His love,

even as it sustained them,

His calling for their forgiveness

as His spirit rose to heaven,

This is the Essence of Who He was,

This is the Son of God.

His rising from the dead

in human form,

then to lift into the sky…

to where? outer space?

to a heaven world beyond?

His body once again would die

and turn to dust once more,

David Copperfield, Nick Fury,

or David Blaine might do as much,

But to change human hearts?

to turn their hatred into love

where Kingdoms centuries later would bear His Name?

This is the work of the Promised One,

a Messenger from God,

this is One of the Holy Ones,

the Essence of what is Love.

cfblack 03-28-2021

There is a beauty in it,this cold,

this frozen landscape

of snow,

the barren trees reaching up

against a sky of grey,

the sunlight glistening

like frosting on a cake,

fingers, cold inside of gloves,

feet that start to ache,

dogs sniffing anything

they come across that day,

The coldness of a night sky

with a million stars,

the Big Dipper sparkling

above us, where we are.

cfblack, 2-8-2021

Winter. I remember you.

Thought I had left you behind.

Deep gray clouds,

barely light,

Snow descends upon us.

Snow plows! don’t exist in the South,

clear the roads for drivers,

The Sun in all its glory, hides,

We cannot see your face,

Fill us with your radiance

and clear these clouds away.

cfblack, 1-3-2020

ROMANS 8:26

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities:

for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:

but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us

with groanings that cannot be uttered.”

When our mouths go silent,

when the words don’t come,

we turn our hearts to the Only One,

feel the peace, sense our place

in the vast and spacious Universe,

“With groanings that cannot be uttered”

in silence, we release our cares,

God speaks for us,

We receive His grace,

And feel the beauty of sacred space.

cfblack, 1-2-2021

In the Fall of life,

the calves of my legs

twitch and twist at night,

keep me awake,

until I get up,

take 3 ibuprofen,

go back to bed.

In the afternoon,

I walk two miles,

happy to be able to,

After the first, my hips speak to me,

and tell me they are there.

In the Fall of life,

cataracts are growing

right in the middle of my eyes,

the doctor tells me,

“Worst possible place,”

that my eyesight won’t clear

with the new prescription.

In the Fall of life,

I have decades now

that I look back upon,

In dreams,

I am at my grandma’s house,

feeling safe and warm.

It is Fall when trees are their loveliest,

Full of reds, and orange, and green,

until the leaves pirouette to the ground,

leaving bare bones to be seen.

I smile to think, this is where I am,

having lived through many years,

it is now that I feel comfortable,

it is now, I know who I am,

Old age is another stage to come,

and youth is fading fast,

But Fall is a lovely season,

I am content with that.

cfblack, 12-17-2020