Map

How these letters, spaces

and punctuation marks form themselves

into something remotely intelligible,

and possibly hopeful

has always been a mystery.

We can feel it much better

than explain it.

At bare places where pain

and suffering have stripped

all sense of entitlement and control,

there is a swath cut through the jungle.

We don't need a map

to remember the way.

Each time we hear stories

of a remotely similar journey

by another person,

our hearts take that path again.

Somewhere along the way,

our brains join the trip,

sometimes abducted, others willingly.

As we near that familiar clearing,

the fog lifts, and we remember

the most powerful promise of Divine:

it is not protection, or power, but presence.

This is the gift that opens vocal chords

and directs fingertips to keyboard,

steadying us all in our naked places of hurt,

casting a flicker of grace upon our darkness.

Photo by Todd Jenkins

© 2013 Todd Jenkins