Song to the Silent God

My seed faith cannot raise
A whisper from you
Just a whisper
In my buried heart
Where no one can laugh at your riddles
Oh bang and clatter
Flail myself against the alter
Demanding your fiery voice
Dance my devotion down your throat
Just to hear you cough or sputter
Something
Anything
Nothing?
Still?
Still
Give me what I deserve
Jumped through hoops of pretentious contrition
Just like the rest of them
They hear you
They say
Stomp my feet and grab you by the tail
Fling you round to my mercy
My submission
My request
I expect
It
From you – right where I want you
Nothing
This feeble thing this mind

you made

you gave

you chained me to
Brief glimpses of a fleck of you

that is all this mind gives me
And it is such hard work fighting,

arguing truth and consequence
Then it foils me again
Broken
Just when I thought I was getting somewhere with you
My thoughts are overwhelmed
And I am stymied

NOT for some great revelation of yours
But from the trite

all too simple question of my brothers
I should thank you I suppose

for the mind you gave me
Wandering as it has for so long
And still it finds
Nothing
Nothing in the pain –

I missed the ‘message’ that the pain brought
Nothing in the joy –

oh the joy the most dangerous of all
In the joy – I squealed with delight
And I almost lost the faint signal

I thought I had you dialed in
So that's it...
I’ve written letters sent out postcards
They’re the ones with the pictures of me in Hawaii
I’m not really there but apparently
You know where I am
So
I am waiting
Stay silent if you wish
Stay quiet if you like
But if you were to speak
I would love you for it
And love you now
I still do…

-Dale