Day 2: Evening

Matthew 2

"Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
'A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted...'"

When all are called
together, violence and
discontent fall
around the edges, offhand
and unsaid. Responsibility,
formulation and
execution fall on me,
burdens, bags of sand
on my aching chest.
It pressures down
the ephod; though rest
is coveted, this gown
is not for sleeping,
instead it makes me bleed.
For it is written,
"i am the lead."

And I've more to escape
than the ecclesial, mind
obliged to reshape.
To grow anew, refined
and now designed to
refine and design more,
to be filled true
and then to pour
like the waters of Baptismal
pitchers, cleansing all
who step through the abysmal
door, and stare at the white wall
while I talk of hope refilled,
the joy of incarnation.
And so was fulfilled,
"out of my obligation."

But where obligation fades,
makes room for play
and passion. i get paid
to lead the way
that these children grow
and strive to win,
and the hours there know
that they are shackles in
locked mode, combination
lost to my competitive drive,
the seat of all frustration;
the need to compare. i contrive
to kill me along the way,
as a means to get ahead.
thus what was said is fulfilled,
"mourning, for i refuse to be comforted."