My heart swells
like a piece of ripe fruit.
It splits like a lip
My heart swells
like a piece of ripe fruit.
It splits like a lip
That would be a poem
Please, my soul
has gotten rotten.
Help me, Lord,
to heal it true.
It’s like scooping
oil from water hoping
to save the birds

Bent in the pew, I
turn into lead and
fall through the floor
My stone is a clump of many
rolling loose in a line when I drag
your scandal out under the stars


When I think of you,
I think of your troubled sleep
and many hard choices.
I see you at night
in the desert,
getting Mary to safety.
And later, again, the three of you in flight,
pyramids looming in the distance.
In all the Gospels you never once opened your mouth.
You didn’t have to. Your actions said it all.
For you were, as all could see,
faithful in all things.
You know I’m not, but would like to be,
so I ask, meekly, that you pray for me
that I might be
in more than just my mind.