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Behind Walking Sticks

Published: 11 November 2019

Black doves on a lamp post.

Why do you hide behind walking sticks,
shun my friends as if they were the lepers
that your Lord taught us to embrace?

What have they done to deserve your
anger and fear and all that causes you
to cause them to cause me great pain

when they tell me that you are nothing?

When they tell me that
you are but a figment of my imagination;
that you listen to the words of swine
in whom God exiled the ghost of Legion—

who has so many words to say
but manifest no actions
except those that damn you to drown
in needless, pointless sorrow.

Nobody is out to get you.

But if you tell me to, I will stand
between you and that like I had,
like I do every given Sunday

from when you pulled me out
from the loving arms of Death
and turned my nightmares
into such hopeful dreams.