The Ragman stopped his cart. Quietly, he walked to the woman, stepping round tin cans, dead toys, and Pampers.
This poem was inspired by Cornelius Plantinga’s book Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be and the lyrics to Cake’s song “Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle.” Bellyful. Passive-aggressive bomb Or self-medicated napalm? The neglect of this rhyme Revives the justification of your dime Spent on supersized fries While kids in the Congo…
My superhero alarm clock
Double-dares me to suit-up
For PE’s mile hike
Up life’s strange coming-of-age,
A call to braces, acne, and puberty.
I look outside my window
And wonder why others’
Faces aren’t melting,
Feeling the nuclear devastation
Of your leaving
I felt like Icarus, whose hubris led him to fly too close to sun, which melted wax on his shoulders, causing feathers to unfasten, and thus his hope of freedom to come crashing down like one of Zeus’s lightning bolts.
“Redeem and restore
What the locusts have eaten—
O Lord—
The schemes Satan’s woven,
Our innocence … stolen.”
This poem was inspired by my friend and pastor, Matt Whitlock, and his sermon on “The Silently Simple Life.”
Mystery of Tears is about redemption and restoration. More specifically, it’s about the sufferings (“spasms”) of Jesus that “broke the curse” for our benefit (i.e., “substitutionary atonement”).
It’s time to release the kraken for Christians to look inwardly with contrition in order to love courageously.