The Wager

Wake from your stupour!

Is it poverty you fear?

Is it the pit’s edge that you tip toe to approach? The one frayed and crumbled

Step closer if you dare- feel its heat and pain

Let your wealthy garments be singed by its stench

Don’t turn away!

You walk so proud, so sure of your plans

How can you be so sure?

This is the wager—

Can you live your life with the promise of abundance

Knowing that abundance is not more but less?

Can you resist the urge to count— to always add and not subtract

I am the worst of the widow’s penny and the rich man’s pile

Clutching the whole lot like my last coin

Tearing my garments in lament of loss

Can you not see?

Free me from this jail

Let me live with open hands

Replace these clenched fists that rage at your love

That rage at your concern

And let the pearl be freed from my hold

Walk me to my fear— inch me closer

Let it be there that I sit and rest and dwell in its peace

In its safety

Have mercy, give mercy freely

With no return imagined

Be blessed for the Kingdom is ours

As promised, at last