MARION SPICHER

LET’S PRETEND


We want to love, to have a life

Born of care, and not of strife …

Strife that lurks, a false defense …

Unbidden, hidden … self pretense.


Mustn’t hurt, and mustn’t yell …

Mustn’t show the depth of hell

But Hell is not a flagrant fire …

It lives in hearts of failed desire.


Our foot falls carry day to day …

Keeping gloom of loss at bay.

Hope moves forward, makes a stride,

Then backward falls, betrayed by pride.


For in our core lies candle light

That fears a dousing wind of fright.

Protect the flame at any cost …

Unskilled at risk of being lost.


To such fragility we’re prone

Can’t look or see, but stay alone …

Amidst a crowd of kindred man

Who seeks to open, never can  …


Who wants to cry “You’re just like me!”

Who wants to bridge, “Oh, can’t you see?”

And in the quest to quench the fire,

Through Omnipotence we build desire.


Desire then comes, our hope in God!

In time we breach the Gauntlet Rod …

Reaching humble grace, we see …

That all we need to do is be.