on nights like this

it's time to sleep the morning comes
the moon is full and day is done
but i'm awake and not afraid
yet sad and joyful all the same
the lives we intertwine arrest
my thoughts and dreams and cares
i long to walk in peaceful steps
i long for you to bear me no ill
to forgive is but a word away
and yet perhaps i'll never hear
the words to bring us home
through many days down many paths
we walk and part and join
sometimes the strength to meet again
cannot be found inside our hearts
the scent of charcoal fills the night
acrid hungry smell of death
in this world caving in to the end
what kills can bring us life again
if you would meet me at the door
i'd meet you with no swords
starting over we could rise up new
like the day that dawns in hours

it's time to sleep and so i'll go
perhaps your slight is apathy
but should you long to stem the dark
i'd join you in that fight
i'm here we'll hold the light
and never say goodnight

reno'd rust buckets

one by one they line the buildings
bonnets turned out and boots in
between their timeless frames
fragile humans walking, laughing
talking, smoking, careless unaware
a turn of the key
a push of the lever
potential danger is close by
the street is their domain
for now they bide their time
tribute to a time when fossil fuels reigned
near enough to touch they sit
built to outlast the hands that take pictures
built to survive wind and rain
built to be restored by loving hands
yet they are not the immortals
these classic cars gloriously restored
cannot hold a candle to the weak humans
all is not as it seems

shards of glory

shard, a noun, related to the word shear, to cut off when a verb or, when
shear, a noun, a strain in the structure of a substance produced by pressure,
when its layers are laterally shifted in relation to each another
shifted, broken, many pieces jumbled
on this the eve of remembering my first breath
i'm awed
amazed by glory
some memories in the mosaic
stained glass of my life
sparkle, undimmed
others cut, leave me breathless
still bleeding
yet i step back, take a walk in the Son's light
see that without Him it's senseless
but with glory the shards
coming together
catching His light
are beautiful because
He is beauty
so i can laugh in the midst of pain
i can rejoice in my Maker tomorrow
He holds my hopes in His hands
one day these shards, produced by pressures
will melt together in transparent loveliness and
glory, a noun, high renown or honor won, a halo worn in heaven
magnificence humbly received now offered back to the Author if it all