What if the fig treewas a live-streamed news reportand when Philipcalled to Nathanael,“Come and see!”it wasn’t Jesus he found but some Jesus flagsand a whole lot of Trump onesand some shirts that said“Camp Auschwitz”andSix Million Wasn’t EnoughandCivil Warnot the Captain America moviebut a remake of 1861 with gunsand flash bombsand zip tiesand gallowsand a mob […]
Poetry
A poem for Epiphany
The Spirit comes in the ordinary, material, everyday. In water. In touch. In names. Tearing open the heavens from time to time, but just as often p‧e‧e‧l‧i‧n‧g back the corner just enough to p‧e‧e‧k “Taste and see” — “sip and glimpse” And then she leaves the corner loose — it doesn’t go back down as […]
Magnificat for the Madonna
A pre-Advent meditation… I’m thankful that a teenage girl in a backwater village said yes –Yes to sideways glances.Yes to whispered (and not-so-whispered) accusations.Yes to suspicion from family and neighbors.Yes to the possibility of going it alone.Yes to a million and one other things she couldn’t know would happen.Yes through her fear.Yes through her doubt.Yes […]
Sowing the garden

heartstrings make tender roots that strain toward the sunlampeven as they burn from the heatthat drink deep of bitter tearseven as they disintegrate from the acidand still they prove to bethe tastiest morsels for devouring is it any wonder that my garden doesn’t bloomwhen you trample growing shootsto rip out tender rootsand have them for […]