Dichotomy

How is it that the same tree expresses opposites?

Yesterday, that Pepperina was stately, gracious, smiling at me 
with benevolence, a sage viewing the world with patient musings, 
its diurnal presence a torch to the joy and calm a life can produce.

Today,  giving no excuse to the prison of penury or the freedom 
of wealth, it is a sentinel to judgement, its hairy arms immovable 
to prevarication or perspective. It looks at me with rigid obstinance, 
mutely frowning at my choices.

Yesterday, a friend. Today, an obdurate bystander.

Giving Thanks

I refuse to be sorrowful, to be condemned

I refuse to cast away my future by 

letting the past dog me; a vulture waiting for

my last breath

Instead, I take a deep breath

Fill my lungs with the sweet air of the present

And thank You for the mercy You

have shown me by showing me that my past habits

do not have to be my future faults

I shake with trepidation, with shame

I shake with the uncertainty of my 

future but at least I now have one that is not an offence

to me or to You

Lampstand

Your fine, fine gold 

gleaming in the gloom

The stature of your frame would grace any room

Seven branches, identical

Far surpassing all that’s 

ecumenical

Each bud and flower beaten 

to within an inch of its life

Their history riven with suffering and strife

Yet grandly there you stand

Firmly rooted on crown 

land

Superb structural glory!

That seems to define your life

But pales into darkness compared to your light

Your bright, bright flowers

Petals of light

Removing all shadow, dispelling the night

Nothing more glorious

than your effulgence diurnal

Steadfast, pure, radiance

eternal.