If God Is That Sublime Moment

If God is that sublime moment
in the story when Jesus said,
“And his father seeing him afar off . . . ”
which could mean, of course,
that he had been watching every day for years,
longing for him,
straining to see him afar off”
it’s that afar off that moves me . . .

or perhaps he only watched
in the late afternoon
thinking he would try to get home before dark,
or early in the morning
after pressing on all through the night,
or at high noon
when his father stood
shadowless under the sun
and remembered his son’s
innocence and sweetness . . .

or perhaps it was just by chance
he saw him
when he looked up
from repairing a harness
or tying a new broom
or from a nap in his favorite chair,
suddenly there he was,
his lost son
coming home . . .

or perhaps he only saw him
because it was his birthday”
his,
not his son’s”
when his eldest,
forgetting the persistence of an old man’s dream,
said, “Make a wish, Father,”
and he did
and looked up . . .
seeing him afar off.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Greetings on a Morning Walk 

Paul Willis

Blackberry vines,  you hold this ground in the shade of a willow: all thorns, no fruit. *…

An Outline of Trees 

James Matthew Wilson

They rise above us, arching, spreading, thin Where trunk and bough give way to veining twig. We…

Fallacy 

J.C. Scharl

A shadow cast by something invisible  falls on the white cover of a book  lying on my…