(For My Sons and for Adam)
I saw the egg
‘Twas lying there
So delicate and blue,
Inviting to investigate,
Oh, what’s a boy to do?
I saw inside
The baby there
So soft and warm and new,
I didn’t know until that day,
The blessing that was you.
Copyright 2014. L.L. Shelton.
Mind is mystery,
Sin its history,
Holiness its victory.
Copyright 2014. L.L. Shelton.
Running ahead
To capture a moment,
Finding it gone to add to my torment.
Racing behind
To find where it went,
Now breathing hard totally spent.
Where did you go,
Life everlasting?
I can’t catch up!
You’re always in passing.
Copyright 2015. L.L. Shelton.
Time is swift,
Like the buck
Crossing the yard
Before the dog.
My arms ache,
Long holding
Nothing at all
Before the dawn.
Copyright 2015. L.L. Shelton.
We are usually wrong when we say forever-
When we say always, ever-after, and never.
These are ideas we’re ill-equipped to perceive-
Much less to conceptualize, live, and believe.
Copyright 2017. L.L. Shelton.
December storms
Come and go,
Yet only seldom
Bring the snow.
Stripped trees
And starker skies
Reflect our sighs.
As bitter winds,
Unfeeling night,
And colder days
Become our plight,
Bring on that magic,
Gentle and white.
Copyright 2017. L.L. Shelton.
Ice is coming
On the ninth.
Fairy dwellings
Of gingerbread
Will be faked.
Graham crackers
Surrounding
Cardboard cartons
Will be lost
In the storm.
Copyright 2017. L. L. Shelton.
(For Jaxon)
In between two
The doctor found me
Low in seratonin and
Vitamin b,
No time to ponder
Before I could see
I looked in the mirror
Pregnancy!
Not to worry
By God’s perfect design
Turned out what I craved
Was far beyond fine,
Portabella mushrooms
My body heeded
Sautéed and all mine
Rich in what I needed.
Copyright 2015.. L.L. Shelton.
They come to me in winter
In the experience of their discontent,
Longing for something,
Hoping for more…
I listen as they describe the cold,
As they experience their inner storm,
And I enter their longing,
Hoping with them…
Together we explore the frozen terrain.
We unearth treasure once buried
For its own protection.
Together we hike high mountains.
We breathe the air once disallowed
For various reasons.
We traverse valleys in the shadow.
We huddle, reassuring one another,
For all are in some need.
We watch with part trepidation
As the freeze begins to thaw,
We tread carefully,
Lest we skate over some place
Where the ice is thin.
We peer into that fragility cautiously,
For we are unsure of what lies beneath,
As the day of winter’s onset
Has been lost to us.
Together we ask the difficult question.
Together we seek the harder answer.
Together we search the worlds,
Thinking, longing, hoping
For something more…
And as through veiled passages
We continue our observation,
Together we see the streams begin to flow.
We take note as the trees bud,
As the crocus pops through the metallic
Cloak above the ground.
We herald the tulips and the daffodils,
And sit in wonderment
At the arrival of spring.
Copyright 2017. L.L. Shelton.
A lame man picks up his mat and walks,
But it is Sunday.
Demons are cast out, sent into pigs,
But it is of the devil.
Tax collectors and whores are loved.
But they are filthy.
Maiden lives, blind man sees, mute speaks,
But again, it is of Satan.
A crippled hand is restored to use,
But again, it is the Sabbath.
A man is brought back from the dead,
But not soon enough.
A woman sacrifices her precious oils,
But the poor need money.
A sign is demanded of Him
But none is given, except for the sign of Jonah.
Copyright 2017. L.L. Shelton