But If Not
Our world is not safe
with its shifts and shrugs,
rumbles and eruptions.
Life sheds off like shaken dust.
Health snaps at a wrist flick.
Even love cracks under assault,
battered and chipped by hammer blows.
Nothing withstands the entropy of Babylon
where all labor as captives for capricious kings,
unless we choose to trust in something better.
Unless we eat foods appointed by our Father.
Unless we seek dreams and definitions,
bend knees in prayer, in open rebellion
against this grasping, rickety world.
We’ll cast ourselves boldfaced
into fire or fury’s empty den
and come out again
saved. But if not—
no matter. God will gather us,
every glittering fragment.
Read more of my poetry at www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry
Contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com
