The Return of Thursday BBP! (6/2)

['late afternoon snack' edition.]

1.

do not falter, young man,
in your quest for glory and honor,
do not second-guess your false steps,
your slipshod softshoe over certain slopes--
do not fret, my lad, you did what you had to do.

do not wonder, young man,
if the one that got away was the
one you should have convinced
to stay awhile--that's ancient history, sir.
better to focus on the present, and let
those marble ruin memories sink into
the back of your forward-thinking mind.

do not whimper, young man,
when you feel the chill winds of solitude
whip at your jacket collar, when you
receive no holiday greeting cards,
when you never get invited up for coffee--
you make these sacrifices for your greater
good, my boy, for the sake of the prize, for the
beautiful brass ring that shines brighter
than any silly wedding band can.

do not worry, young man, that your life
has been wasted on a race you couldn't win.
do not give in, my young son, to the lie
that what matters is who you are and not your
net worth current value liquid asset material holdings.
if we all did that, nothing would get done,
and the whole wide world would come crashing down
around us, a great black mess of emotion and
love and weakness, staining our black hearts red.

2.

i find it hard to reconcile
common sense with
Your teaching. i must have
heard you wrong. for example,
you don't actually want
me to forgive those who
do me wrong, do you?
i mean, i thought you were
all about justice, and the
lifting up of the righteous--
why the sudden change of
heart? (why won't you back
me up? i'm on your side!)
and then you talk about being
judgmental as if it were a
bad thing. i thought we were
supposed to call sin what it is,
to not tolerate it in our tents?
i thought i was being a good
neighbor by saving people around me
from making terrible mistakes, like
that story about the man who
was robbed on the Jericho road.
(speaking of which,
i have a few questions about who
was who in that story, because
surely you meant to say that
the righteous holy men stopped
to help, and the unclean one
didn't. i guess i misheard you.)
but the real problem i'm running
into is this speck-and-beam thing.
i really don't understand. if (for the
sake of argument) I had a speck in my eye,
i should help my brother with his beam,
since I can see his fault so clearly,
right? is that what you were getting at?
(and stop going on about having ears to hear--
i hear just fine. you're the one who refuses to
make any sense.)

3.

when i am hungry
(which does not happen enough)
use it to remind me
that i am weak
and dependent on Your generous mercy
for breath and blood and body.
remind me that You gave me hunger
as a way to tell me that
i cannot live without outside
nourishment, that i am not
self-reliant, that i need You to provide
every good and perfect gift.

when my soul is hungry,
whisper in my ear
the very same thing.