April Fool's Anniversary

 

April Fool's Day, 1995.

What a day to first meet.

Was it love at first sight?

Was his heart my destiny?

Turns out, he had prayed.

To meet the girl of his dreams.

Before the night we met

Two foolish teens.

Not knowing what

The future would bring

We sat side-by-side

At a Denny's.

One dressed in grunge

The other black as night

With hair blazing red

A torch of light.

Drawn to his warmth

There at his side

Nothing was hidden

Our words intertwined.

Five years of waiting

Room to grow up

To spread out our wings

Before tying the knot.

Now here we are

After twenty-nine years

Together as One

In life's joys and fears.

Having the same

Faith, Hope, and Love

Though we are weak

Made strong from above.

And in the center

In each triumph and fall

Christ Jesus our Lord

Redeemer of it all.

Whether foolish or wise

Our heads bow each night

Our hands intertwine

Before we turn out the light.

Blessed remembrance

The day we first met

Two middle-agers

Who've got room to grow yet.

 

Letting life slow down

Being less driven

Enjoying our family now

The children we've been given.

Looking forward to the next

Twenty-nine years (or more)

With my April Fool's love 

Who was worth waiting for.

New Smyrna Minorcans Ballada| The Story of the 1768 Florida Colony

 

New Smyrna Minorcans Ballada

by Chanda Singleton Griesë

On God’s great earth
From east to west
Some simple colonists

By Turnbull’s sway
Packed belongings
Not knowing the way.

On stormy seas
That fierce winds blew—

Two months they sailed
On black seas to 
The promised land.  

Read more here.

Best Neighbor Around| Hospitality of the Gopher Tortoise

Photo by Dawn McDonald on Unsplash

Old man, wrinkled and dry
Not many visitors
Grace his earthen threshold

Best neighbor beyond compare
With hospitality for misfits—
Forsaken, hated, and feared.

A found friend in the darkness
Cuddled against the cool shell,
Coiled, the rattlesnake sleeps.

Hideaway from decapitating shovels
From cars that swerve on purpose
To squash the life from his bones.

More found on my substack here.

 

He Knew Me| An Easter Allegory

He knew me.
I mean really knew me.
Knew everything that I had done
Or failed to be.

Yet, I found myself wrapped
In His warm embrace.
My eyes closed, and I rested,
Filled with His love and grace.
  
He covered my tattered rags—
Took away my shame—
With His white woolen robe
And gave me His name.

My skin had changed.
It was so clean.
Cleaner than if I’d bathed
In a cool mountain spring.

His skin was covered
In what used to plague mine.
This thick oily substance,
Blacker than grime.

His stride was determined.
He didn’t relent.
His destiny, his burden
His face set like flint.

In the distance, clouds parted
To reveal the sin-stained man
(though not His sin but mine)
On the lonely mountain.

Read more here.