Voices 2

Voices 2

It’s getting hot in the kitchen

While the one who chooses better

Sits there in the other room

Listening to your voice

From her place there at your feet.

I need her to match my urgency,

But I can’t get a rise out of her at all.

She’s not taking the bait at all,

And you come to her defense?

Well, that’s not fair.

I can hear you in there,

Still going on,

As if I hadn’t even spoken the obvious truth.

I just love how the sound of the pots and pans

Drowns out your voice.

I can pretend I didn’t hear what you said.

Maybe she will hear the clanging and banging

And decide to be a good girl, too.

I keep forgetting that clanging and banging

Is often the enemy’s language of choice.

Since uproar is my native language,

It’s much easier for me to hear,

Not to mention that it’s easier to speak.

I’ll never really understand why your voice in its mercy

Works so hard to wedge its way in edgewise

Between a clang and a bang,

But it always finds a way.

I’m learning, slowly, to recognize it when it shows up.

It looks something like a wisp of smoke from a silent tongue of flame.

It sounds something like an unspeakable groan of deep calling deep.

Its shape is like a word that only makes sense

When seen in flesh that dwells among us.

After a time, it grows louder than the clamor,

And I’m very much aware that you’re as close as the next room

Under my very own roof of my very own house

Where, earlier, I opened my very own door and let you in.

In fact, you’re always right there where the one who chooses to

Can hear every word perfectly clearly.

Standing still in Martha’s kitchen

I can see Mary in there rooted at your feet,

And, suddenly, mercifully, I see:

You came not to be served but to serve,

Not to eat and drink but to pass out bread and pour out wine.

You came to pour out water to wash my feet—

Speaking of feet,

I don’t know how I got in here so fast!

Somehow, I’m the one sitting here with your clear voice washing over me

Instead of standing stubborn in the heat of the kitchen

Ridiculously deciding what you need.

—erinrmsocha 5-8-2020