In God We Trust

I’ve been digging through past lives for
months, searching
for fingerprints
in five feet, eleven inches of

deceit dust covering everything
I know! How many times did he shed his skin
back here?  Dead parasites are proof!

He was on the roof when it caved.
Climbed  over four hundred days
with water and
a bible.

He left spoons and mattress burns below him,
tribe familiars blossomed following his climb,
extending gratitude,
tribute!

And he climbed, praising God, until he reached
Grace,
humble resiliency…

We sang!
We cried and we sang!
We wrapped our hugs in packages with golden bows,
throwing them to a skeptical world! We danced, twirled
through moon phases, a
fantastic celebration!

Then, a sharp raucous!
Brusque thunder crushing eardrums!

Blood poured from our ears
as the noise devastated. Bible pages
fell like confetti over
our joy; a tearful,
thick pollution!

We cried!
We fell and we cried!
We wrapped our memories in boxes with golden locks,
sealing them, our treasures. Silently, we
remembered, our Requiem,
a tribute!

All we know is that he climbed,

and that underneath five feet, eleven
inches of his dust, it is

in God that we place our
rusted
trust.

You Used To Laugh At Me Like I Was Crazy When I Worried That You Might Die

He called me from three hundred miles
away
to tell me that he had relapsed. He found
a needle and he shot himself up
because he thought he had nothing left.
Anger burned through me and if I could have scorched
his face with my eyes, I would have.

Later, he called me from a jail cell. He told me
that he was clean, had been for awhile.
He sounded calm. He said he found God.
Tears fell hastily to the floor, they had been waiting
for this kind of release! Gratitude was all I could muster so I
hit my knees and thanked God because this was a true miracle!

He called me in the morning just to tell me
that I was amazing
and beautiful
and that he didn’t know he could love someone so much.

He called me at night to tell me
to “dream sweet, sweetheart” and “I’ll see
you in my dreams”.

Then, one day, I got a call
but it wasn’t him that called me.  He
had been called away from me and
all of those that loved him.  Sometimes, I still think
that the phone will ring
and I might hear his voice again.