hHuOmLaYn

as I sit and feel the gentleness of your heart

in what it would have been like

for your hand as a newborn

to wrap around my pinky

and squeeze

I remember

you were human too

you were human

for thirty years

you waited to start your work

which means maybe you were twenty

like me

and itching to start your work

like me

but knowing the time wasn't right yet

maybe you were frustrated

like me

cuz you were human

you apprenticed your carpenter father

who you knew wasn't your father

but honored and loved and revered as if he were

you spent years making

chairs

tables

doors

wagons

crucifixes

even though you knew you'd never use that trade when it came down to it

you were human

you went hungry, you ate till you slept

you probably vomited

you drank

you cried, you itched, you sang, you coughed, you choked, you joked

you laughed, hard

in your holiness you redeem, heal and restore

and in the quietness of your spirit

like a baby blinking into his first light

or yawning his first yawn

you remind me

you were human