Deborah Downes

Plastic Jesus on dashboards and in celluloids
Expressionless face mouthing great wisdom in monotone
Hanging from a cross of suffering as though in peaceful slumber
His heart and soul of passion displayed without emotion
...

Amid the rubble of crumbling concrete
a seed, unwittingly sown, sends its tender shoots
pushing toward love’s light.
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I saw a little boy with his mother today....
bright-eyed and rosy, playful to intently curious.

I saw a mother with her little boy today....
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Evil, like a virus, cannot survive outside the living
It does not dwell in the dark places of legend
but in the dark spaces of the mind.
And when the opportune moment arises
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Down the day and down my mood
Time passed away but not to good
I walked and wandered, no where to go
I sought and searched, no one to know
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Two lonely children
Walking hand in hand
Standing side by side
Against a cold world
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Remember your first dance?
The anticipation and uncertainty
The painstaking preparation of clothes and coif
Wanting to stand-out but afraid of rejection
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I never knew you
but your pain pierced my heart in ways I could not have imagined
and magnified my senses to realize God’s wonders....
to see nature’s palette of perfection
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Piercing, pounding, perpetual pain
demanding all my energy, and leaving me insane
Day in and day out, blessed peace eludes me
The song of life plays on, but has chosen to exclude me
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Faces, bodies, clothes, that taunt us with perfection
On TV, ads, and billboards, too numerous to mention
Exercising, motorizing, proselytizing, so it goes….
Everywhere you turn to are solutions to all woes
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At the very moment of being
the doom of death is born
Yet we strive to deny this birthright
and it incenses us to survive
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You are a brilliant patchwork of people, wearing their imperfections with pride
not ashamed to be different.

Like a jagged concrete and glass tiara surrounding an emerald heart
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Unkempt dreadlocks and threadbare suit
he enters the subway car with confident stride
The smells of neglect clear a path for him
as though he were a king.
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As I bask in the aftermath of our love, the first tendrils of doubt insinuate my thoughts
so recently filled with elation.

Ever subtly, they take hold of my heart and wrest it from its safe harbor
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Me, myself, and I
Do not consider why
It’s you that I deny
My conscience bears no weight.
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Wild beasts of prey
sought to mangle and slay
those souls who believed
and to one God did pray.
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I stare at the television news....
Assaulted by violence
Stunned by the inhumanity of a Godless society.
I listen to the radio....
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He walked along the garden path
Cloaked in silent beauty
And His soul screamed out in agony
As He struggled with His duty.
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Between black and white, right and wrong, war and peace
lies the gray zone, the blurred line, middle ground, limbo
No boundaries between good and evil, moral and amoral, thin ice and solid ground
No safety net to prevent us from slipping into extremes
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Salted sweetness and sticky smoothness are sensations
That fill my mouth with memories of
Briny beaches on a summer’s day
And muddy little hands, gripping a sandwich
...