Adventesimal

This poem was written by our son, Drake (26), and appears on his church's website as a part of their Advent Reflection series. Posted here with his permission.

Standing with my back to the past

I hunch slightly as most wouldn’t notice

We all do:

We maintain—collective—that you are coming

Bringing or sending

Sweet relief in the right hand

Sweeter justice in the other

A dark-grey form in the blackness ahead

Yet too distant, yet worthy of hope

But I suspect—no, anticipate—more:

More bending beneath the yoke of experience

More desperate squinting, ever straining to know

Shivering with uncertainty in the lukewarm air

Surely you are coming [Selah]

Ground beneath, its groans, reverberating

Provoke me to kneel, to steady

Groping blindly the dirt with one hand

Pressing softly my chest with the other

Peace:

I tell myself on your behalf

On your behalf, are you not coming?

Low I remain, fearfully planted

Unsure, unseeing, unable of other—

Lo! I remain:

Spring up, O righteous Jeremiah’s Branch

O living Redeemer of Job

For trembling I here of this clay and this stone

Have naught but to wait for my Lord

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Happy Birthday (yesterday), Drake.