“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” 

— Matthew 7:11

Broken Blessings

Battle scarred, the executive longs for

…rest, vaguely aware of the scythe

…of exhaustion, rescued

…with illness and

…..a bed.

Shouting down a protest, she hears her voice

…contemptuous; understanding

…her need to understand,

…she reaches for

…..their hands.

Desperate to reconcile, a mother feeds

…her own, whose age needs convalesce,

…and in those bitter hours

…works forgiveness

…..and grace.

Crushed under conflict, their eyes turned against

…the wind, a people cry for peace,

…electing a debtor

…from across a

…..long aisle.

Groaning with all life to brush heaven’s joys —

…just to bear a cross — deep prayers earn

…fathomless answers

…in our broken

…..blessings.

Jubilee

There’s a casual lightening, unrecognized

at first, in the wake of a distant shout,

or maybe some unguessed music, as when

a taut and aging muscle suddenly

gives way, the clinking of unwanted iron

slipping to ground. But then a satiety

invades, a strange, familiar character,

and that rune known only in the pulpits’

shadowed casts and smoke-filled libraries turns

to the something real in the here of now.

A velvet veil parts, sweeping the soul

with light from new stars, piloting a dawn

rich with gold through crimson tinctured clouds.

Those open cuts and empty spaces raw

with wind and fever quiet, and the mind’s

needles slacken — not gone, but sharp no more.

New bells ring louder each step forward, each

step more remote from reason, and hands clasp

around an open table where no night

divides. A smile emerges blithe from lines

of furrowed tears, mirrored in every smile

surrounding, and the pardon bubbles out,

like the cool waters of a baptismal font

streaming silver laughter down the face.

Citation Information

Joshua S. Fullman, “Broken Blessings,” An Unexpected Journal: Joy 5, no. 3. (Fall 2022), 141-142.

Joshua S. Fullman, “Jubilee,” An Unexpected Journal: Joy 5, no. 3. (Fall 2022), 143.