Hungry Hearts

(It took about 15 minutes to get this down; piecing together some stray thoughts scribbled down in my notebook this past year or hibernating in my memory somewhere. I was hesitant at first to get it out this soon, and I had this apprehension that it might still be too raw and rough-on-the-edges what with very sparse editing done. My stuff usually sits a bit longer at the backburner of my mind or my pc before I get back to it and say to myself "I'm ready to give this part of me away..." But sometimes, those spur-of-the-moment, light-bulb-above-your-head kind of episodes deliver what I consider my favorites. So far this is one of them…)

You drink yourself to numbness;
Smoke yourself to ashes
You hatch your escape with pills;
Flood your veins with delusion
You spend yourself to bankruptcy;
Work yourself to exhaustion

Warped vision from a twisted mind
You imagine with the world, everything’s fine
Money ladder keeping your feet above ground
On a corporate merry-go-round
Your teacher, your mirror is a magazine
Chasing after shadows, chasing the wind

Lonely, won’t you sit beside me;
Pain, aren’t you my friend
Contrition, come be my companion;
Hunger, have your home within me
There’s no need to disguise
Sorrow, you can make me wise

We are broken because they fell
We fell, so we are broken
With wounds wide open,
and scars screaming what we don’t tell
Shame rides the back of souls
Picture-perfect or decrepit, all are bent

Silence all distractions, don’t gaze away
You’re not what you wear
Though you pretend not to care
Don’t be afraid to look inside
In the darkness and the mess you tried to hide
Be still—stay; don’t run away

Lonely, won’t you sit beside me;
Pain, aren’t you my friend
Contrition, come be my companion;
Hunger, have your home within me
There’s no need to disguise
Sorrow, you can make me wise

Shun all the noise, take time to cry
Embrace the solitude and the silence you dread
Gentle arms of mercy you’ll find instead
In this selfish cave we dwell
We’ve been hiding so well
When all we really want is to be found

Sated with the world yet never filled
Now surrender, soak in the real hunger
Let grace slake your thirst
In His love let your soul immerse
When nothing satisfies, don’t go too far
Hold out hungry hearts, that’s who we are

Lonely, won’t you sit beside me;
Pain, aren’t you my friend
Contrition, come be my companion;
Hunger, have your home within me
There’s no need to disguise
Sorrow, you can make me wise

(September 2007)

catch a teardrop

He
catches
my teardrops
in His nail-scarred hand
and rests my weary head
on shoulders that
bore a cross

(07 July 2002)