In Amazement

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters… (Genesis 1:2)

Crystal eyes, whose full perfection all the world amazes… (Shakespeare “Venus and Adonis”)

We see cracks in the pavement, little broken openings--

hairline fine—that run along sidewalks, blacktop, dirt paths,

deep, deep beneath the ground, into the earth, up

through home foundations, stone, brick, wood frames,

and windows.

We follow these cracks, barefoot, wandering

alone along broken roads backwards. We wander

wondering who we are and how we got here and how

we get back or move forward.

We forget, when moving and feeling behind somehow,

that all movement is forward and back, a rocking

like the chair the Lord sits in singing lullabies to our Spirit

as our Soul slowly finds its way home. A rocking,

like ocean waves pushing up toward shore and receding,

moving upon the earth to draw it into water.

And it is there, at the place where earth and water meet,

that God’s Spirit moves—one great hand-shaped cloud.

And the water becomes a blanket He inches up, over

our toes, our ankles, our legs, our torso,

our neck, our chin, our lips, our nose, our eyes,

our hairline

until completely covered, our breath stills

and we dream of open windows and rainwater

filling rails, flowing over and flooding

our most intimate rooms.

These dreams, like waves or falling rocks

strike our forehead, rendering us unconscious

so that we float in a daze, spiraling up, up, up

to where the Three Kings of Orion sparkle like crystal

or like the eyes of an unblemished bride.

In amazement, we see a band of angels, pure winged white lights,

coming down like the watery wall of a water fall

through the many-layered atmosphere to touch

the center of the earth, that fiery core, then rise up

again to God.

And we feel, for a moment, the world spinning,

our head in a whirl as one great finger reaches

down to seal the cracks our feet have walked upon

in every place we’ve wandered.