Rise and Shine

The percolator
bubbling and puffing,
the clink of dishes,
feet thumping overhead,
the hiss of butter or bacon
on a hot pan…

Morning sounds,
like sprites,
hovered around my head,
until I was drawn from sleep
by their spell.

But it was the laughter,
the voices
spry with conversation,
that finally got me out of bed
and bounding up the stairs
from my grandparents’ basement.

What jokes had I missed?
What stories or discussions?
Had an aunt or uncle stopped by
with cousins in tow?

I didn’t know it then,
but now I can see
the face of God
behind the smiles of relatives,
the shadow of communion
in the buttered toast and jam,
the resurrection and the life
as I woke from sleep
and found the arms of grandma
or grandpa
open
and waiting.

Frame of Reference

My grandma used to paint.

Of all her paintings, my favorite
depicts a dirt road in an autumn wood.

The road stretches out straight ahead
from the foreground
and leads to a weathered gate
in the center of the painting.
Beyond the gate,
the road curves off to the right
and disappears into
orange, green, and gold foliage.

For years I’ve looked at this painting
and wondered:
Is the viewer arriving somewhere
or leaving?
If arriving or leaving, where?

I could ask my grandma these things
but she’s dying.

Once
I was drawing a picture,
and one of the trees
wouldn’t entirely fit
on the page.
Grandma said
I shouldn’t try to make it fit.
She said the picture you’re painting
is always bigger
than the canvas,
and you have to let things go
beyond
the field of view.

As I look
at the road in the wood again,
grandma’s words return to me.

The answers to my questions
can’t be found within
the frame
but lie outside it
where the road leads.

Arise Beautiful One

My lover spoke and said to me,
“I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God
and those who hear will live.
Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me.
See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.
For as the Father has life in himself,
so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.
Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me will live.
Arise, come my darling;my beautiful one, come with me.”

(SOS 2:10-13; John 5:25, 26; 11:25)