Break (Psalm 29)

 
Break (Psalm 29)
 
Adhered.
I find myself stuck to the ground,
Trapped in the earth,
Captive of the world.
Gravity is too strong,
Too grave.
I demand to know:
Am I an ant that I should bear
Ten times my own weight
For even ten hours more of waiting?
Am I a mere ant?
 
I’m not native to tunnels,
But somehow I find myself here often‒
Buried.
Encapsulated.
Aching to straighten my limbs.
Breathing back the same air.
For a while
I had an extra inch to spare,
But now I’m close to frozen.
Like dreams
In which I can’t scream,
It takes all of me and more
To make a squeak
That anyone at all might hear
And recognize its meaning
And come to let me out.
 
Yet I find I can muster a peep.
And with that whisper of a breath
I can ascribe
Just one stroke of one letter
Toward the telling of his glory,
A scratch on the concrete that encases me,
One fingernail tip tap toward my freedom,
Toward the glory due his name.
 
A key the size of one grain of sand
Unlocks the kingdom,
And the king himself is coming‒
He was already on the move‒
A thunderhead looming,
Advancing over the waters,
Accelerating in my direction.
Mine!
 
I’m sure ants would feel the tremors long before I do,
But at long last
I’m straining toward the thunder in the distance.
I crave the impossible crunch of the cedars breaking.
I glory in the splintering twisting of the oaks
And the blast of the storm that shreds their leaves.
There is such relief in the impact
Because I am saved.
I am safe.
I am free!
I can breathe.
 
From deep within the temple,
Almost unbidden,
Bursts forth the purest cry:
Glory!
An answer to his thunder:
Glory!
He spent his strength on me!
And I am resting,
Bathed in spirit wind
Atop the tenderest shoots of green
Under a clear vast sky,
In perfect peace.
 
‒erinrmsocha 8-17-2020