voices

Write this down for the next generation
    so people not yet born will praise God:
"God looked out from his high holy place;
    from heaven he surveyed the earth.
He listened to the groans of the doomed,
    he opened the doors of their death cells."
(Psalm 102:18-20, The Message)

really?
          you listen -
    to me?

evidence seems to indicate
otherwise,
          why else are my prayers
               echoes of yesterday's,
    why else are items on my
            shopping list
            never crossed off,
       why else does the pain of
                  my life continue
            to have such a grip
                      on me that i
         am limp throughout
                       the day?

perhaps . . . perhaps . . . perhaps
                                              you
    prefer to listen to the
            deep cries of my
                                 soul,
       the wee sounds of my heart
            as the cracks spread
                   slowly across its
                 frozen surface,
     the whispers of the Spirit
           searching for a home -
                        all those voices
                              i have no time
                 (or desire) to listen to;

like those voices of
             the broken,
       the oppressed,
                    the lost,
            the lonely,
    the sisters and brothers
                 who long for
           someone to listen

© 2013 Thom M. Shuman