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Poetic Responses to Psalms and Scripture


But the love of the Lord is everlasting

upon those who hold him in fear;

his justice reaches out to children’s children

when they keep his covenant in truth,

when they keep his will in their minds.

 

                   Ps. 103:17-18

 

Oh, but they are small!

My kids, racing past the kitchen cabinets—

will they grow, and pair,

give birth?  As I have.

Will they listen to one word I say?

How can they keep a covenant

when they don’t remember their promise

to throw fruit roll wrappers away?

Lego men, pens and a pillow fort on the floor testify:

they have more on their minds than You!

 

I try for them, to remember,

cajole and admonish.

I bark, a guard dog

protecting their future.

But my tone seems thin while my hands

work: prepare their clothes, clean her ear piercings,

put sunblock on his scar—her medicine, his

wheatless meals. What must I know

to fulfill my covenant with you?

I’m afraid I fail.

I do fear the Lord.


-- By:  Ms. Karen Jessee, OP - - a member of the Dominican Laity, St. Mary Magdelene Group in Raleigh, NC.  She writes and teaches, living with her husband and children near Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

 

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