Renown

Sometimes between a rising and a setting
There's a neighbor at my table asking if I have coffee
And what it looks like to love a wife
Who hardly seems like his wife anymore
And whether the baby will bring her back
Or make her more a stranger
And how he's supposed to hold on

There's a phone call from a girl who hasn't felt cherished
Since the day he vowed he would
And she wants to know how to hold on
To a back that's been turned for a year now

There are dirty little faces at my back door
Looking for playmates, and a meal that doesn't come in cellophane,
A soft voice, a silent hug, and someone to call the police
Because Daddy's hurting Mommy

Sometimes the sorrow is choking
Sometimes I gasp with the pain
Wound around the lives around me

And a tall man's knocking to tell me he's new here
Because he just lost his wife and nine children
To greed or misunderstanding or neglect
His or hers I'll never know
But I know that's how it happens here
Day after day

A young mom sends a message asking
How to raise this baby that is not the child she thought she'd have
How to understand this doctor's foreign words
How to learn the skills she never knew she'd need
How to let herself love the child she might lose

But the phone is ringing again
With the school psychologist who needs a meeting with me
To discuss when my girls will come to learn braille
And how to use a white cane
And how to make their way in this world

And sometimes I have no words of advice
For the brokenness around me
For the sorrow we're all breathing here
In between the little joys
Sometimes it's choking

So I tell them I don't know
That we're all just holding on here
But I know there's a designer
Who's calling us back to find him
And maybe he's driving us out of loving this life
With sorrow like smoke of a house that's on fire
Driving us to fresh air
To home
Somewhere beyond here

Sometimes on my porch the air is soft
The shadows are cool
Like still waters and green pastures
And I am refreshed for another rising
With his staff beside me
Guiding me through suffering
For his renown