Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There

Stare at the ants like a slug.

Stop matching socks.

Don’t even intend to floss, eventually.

 

Don’t move.

Stand perfectly still

like a pillar of salt.

 

Mark all e-mails as read

and stand.

Set both feet

over the X marked spot.

 

Leave the shoe untied.

Allow your ego to try

to add height to your stature.

Think tall, stand tall,

don’t move at all.

 

The moss will grow on one side.

Your shadow will do the walking

under the sun,

under the sun.

It will be the long

and the short of it

under the sun.

Psalm 42

Isaiah 41:10

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Psalm 139

Psalm 46

Psalm 46:10

Stones In Hand

Are stones for throwing?

 

I threw them

at miniature plastic tanks and army men.

The images on CNN framed grown men

heaving stones at armor and assault rifled soldiers.

We were boys once.

 

Mr. Johnson across the street taught me

to search for rolling rocks.

The roundest rocks would roll

all the way down and around the corner.

Gravity and grace on asphalt.

 

One of my older brothers showed me

how to skip stones at Hogset Lake.

Flat stones were prized skippers.

Side armed flings placed abbreviated touch points

across the water and we counted.

 

The gravity has weighted the stones

in my hand and I stand.

Shoulders slumped and a loose grip

on judgments to be thrown.

Will I be the first to cast one?

 

Or will I let it roll or skip and wonder?

I would cast one for fear of being found out,

and Jesus would keep writing with his finger.

 

Would Jesus have stopped writing if they handed him their stones?