Life Together
I shovelled out the gaps between the cars that morning cold
(Whatever for) and almost had done along the street
When he approached, confronted, bid me quick to stop
Not sure just why –Besides presenting reason (plain enough to see) but down
Beneath I sensed the presence of a City Code
In aberrant behaviour to be seen –Ah yes! The city where each other lives and
Lets the other live – and if you don't
They take your life to stop disruption of the status quo –Fear it is – they're scared to death of each and every one
Of those left bleeding by the side of road
Or needing help – the kind of rural help we once all had –
But now is lost to all as urban fear now trickles through our land.What of this life – unchanged within the city I once entered in the burbs
Way back as kid from rural life fresh come –
'Tis not community, you know, I know – I've
Felt its warmth, grew in its life,
Walked in the shadow of its grace –You think ‘sophisticate’ you are – but naught you are
As you each stumble in the dark, exclude, and seek to be the one on top
Of mountains you create in mental fantasies
Of wealth and power and form –So silly all – except the Mennonites, of course,
Who in pursuit away from home cast
Out to the engine of their lives and
Press to their advantage in this round of game,
Neglecting that their kids have but the shell
Of what once vibrant was,
An empty shell, more
Hindrance now than engine
For their day.This man – in all his boisterous words
Defending that – his piece of turf and words –
He said it all in actions plain – for ‘server’ I
A simple man – I raise my boys without
A wife – have got to here, and do my job
Of maintenance quite well – I
Bid you not pour shame
Upon me with your
Jumping in above beyond
What I saw there
To do for others –
Road beyond the
Walk, and rink for kids.Of course there was my own reaction – finish job, and
Tidy up, then go back home and on with life
Quite pleased that server ’cross the street
Had shovel taken in his quiet way
And small begun to work
His way through piles of
Snow as well.But he retreated to the safety of his shell,
Once more to live and let the others live –
Too dangerous by far to tip the status quo.
For what? And end up dead someday
To some small minded
Person with their self-preserving
Nose quite out of joint?
No way –And so the status quo just oozes back its slimy cover
O’re city life, in there content to stifle life
From those who seek to eek
Their lives out 'neath
Its pall.How sad – a city which could also have a life if it but cared
To make such small adjustments to their way of life
(Or death as case may be).How sad indeed, but then, who cares, ’cept You, O Lord,
Who gave your life a ransom for us people – such as these
Who in their city live, and come to visit –
To waken to new life of possibility – if
We only fear would shed,
Step out into the breach,
And ‘pay it forward’
Into life –Accepting love and wisdom as the salt, and light, and leaven,
To our paltry lives of mindlessness of others
Beyond selves.It bothers me – the incident that day –
Not just because of that
But for the mirror which
It placed before my eyes
Of who I am –
That mixture – gold in clay admixed while wet,
Yet now become quite firm –
Unyielding, and determined to the end to press
Despite the lives of others –
Not too smart, I'd say,
Like others of ‘The Way’
Who press ‘not wisely but too well’.Then to my mind comes word – select the task
That's yours and do it well –
Such incidents to tease their code
Then, as you front of building pee
At will quite undisturbed –
Slip in My word to ease their
Lives – though die you
Will – best separate –King Herod's threat quite premature
And out beyond the pale of old Jerusalem,
From time that's come as Lamb of God
To take their sins upon yourself
And not back down to force
Of such as these.So, learn it, Stu, and then forget the rest
And do your work;
I'll lead you in the tests and sorties
Into their fair land –
Not as a kid without the wherewithal
To cope at age of nine
(Or twelve, like me
As I besought as well
To be about my
Father's biz).We'll journey on – but be aware
That when they come for you, you'll see them not;
That silent as a bullet in the night
They'll take you out, along with those like you
But it will be too late –For, like that man across the street who shovelled snow –
It's in his life I work a mile or two
In some strange way you'll never know;
And through his life, or lives of his acquaintance,
Push darkness back
With the radiant beams of
Soft revealing life.navigation