Hear
my cry,
O God;
listen
to
my prayer;
from
the end
of the
earth
I call
to Thee,
when
my heart
is
faint.
[Psalms 61:1]
**********************
[THE LORD IS GAZING DOWN
AT HIS SCRUFFY CHILD:
WEARING A FADED OLD
FLOWERED HOUSE DRESS,
AND HOLDING A SPIRTING,
TANGLED-UP HOSE,
ON A SOUTH
TEXAS NIGHT.]
(The child, stopping
for a moment to watch
a plump lawn-frog
jump away from
the squirting water,
sniffs the air: it
smells of dry dirt,
and dusty cement.)
"LORD?"
"What is it,
Mein kin'der."
(Squinting up at the
night sky, and pointing.)
"Did You SEE that
I planted another
new BUSH?"
[SMILE.]
[NOD.]
"SEE?"
(Pointing to a small, scraggly
plant in the middle of
a tiny hose-fed puddle
of bagged-dirt.)
"It's right THERE!"
"Yes."
[NOD.]
I see it,
My precious."
"REMEMBER?
LAST YEAR?"
[CALM NOD.]
"I PRAYED over THOSE
two new BUSHES?
AND,
they both DIED?"
[SOLEMN NOD.]
"Yes,
Mein kin'der."
(His child looks up at the
parched night sky. Even
the moon, just a thin sliver
of a white bowl, appears
to be waiting for a dipful
of cooling rain.)
"I gave 'em VITAMINS....
and, NAMED them....
pulled the WEEDS
around 'em.....
and TALKED to them...?"
[SMILE.]
[CHUCKLE.]
(Child shouts up at the
huge, cloudless sky.)
"HOW COME YA
DIDN'T BLESS 'EM?"
"Because,
Mein kin'der."
[PAUSE.]
"You didn't
water
them,
enough."
*****************
O God,
Thou art
my God,
I seek
Thee,
my soul
thirsts
for Thee....
as in a
dry and weary
land
where
no water
is.
[Psalms 63:1]
Copyright 2011.
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