LORD YOU ARE MY SALVATIONExodus 14:14 (AMP)- “The Lord will fight for you while you [only need to] keep silent and remain calm.”
Lord, you have guided me to be still and listen for your words. The words that are within my essence come to life each morning. Upon waking, my thoughts are calm for no matter what the day may bring you will give me comfort. You have been my comforter and my guide in my times of troubles. My haste caused me much pain and discomfort over the years. Now knowing your heart for my salvation there is peace. Lead me to the still waters of your creation so my thirst is filled. Look into my heart and know my longing for your safety. The shadows of my past has been removed by your consistent deliverance of my troubled mind. For the battles I once faced without you caused my spiritual death. Being silent and remaining calm has restored my being. This is my eternal salvation and redemption by your son Jesus Christ who brought me life. Jesus' resurrection brought me into your Kingdom. There is no need for me to battle alone in the weariness of my mind for now the Kingdom of heaven is my eternal home.
Prayer: May I remain silent and calm moment by moment. Knowing that your soft voice will bring me joy and rest from those who seek to harm me. May my words and deeds and actions reflect your heart in my daily walk. Remind me in moments of disharmony you have placed your shield before my heart. In your Holy name I pray.
Amen
BRING ME BACK HOME Psalm 119:25-26 “I am worn out and weary; my heart is exhausted, but I will keep your law. Restore me, Lord, and give me new life, and I will obey your every command.” (NIV)
Oh, Lord I am your Faithful child, for You are my Heavenly Father. You renewed my Heart to Love You Forever. I have been given an experience of death to the world. While I was in the hospital, I nearly died to the world and You restored my Spirit. I have prayed to you since childhood. Now, at 67 years old, you have guided me back to your Salvation and Redemption. I have sought You and I have received Your Grace. Grace because of your Divine and Majestic and Mighty power to give birth to Creation. I’m a part of your Creation and have never been far from You. You never gave up on me.
This restored Heart has given me life. My Heavenly Father whom I Love with all my essence. I have knelt at the altar listening for the whisper of you calling me, my Lord, for I’m dust. My spirit is now full of Glory for a life of joy and prosperity. Your plans for me to know Your precious Son Jesus the Christ. He paved the way for me to have everlasting Life in the Heavenly Kingdom.
Prayer: Divine Father of all of Creation I celebrate my sonship. I adore your Holy Son Jesus Christ, Who died on the Cross for my sins (and separation) from You. You have sought me since my birth. Decades have passed sitting before the altar of lights. Praying on my knees with tears fallen on the altar rail. My heart was lost and my soul was aching. Lost and confused seeking you. You called me while I was severely ill, giving me solace. Now in Your Heart I have returned Home. This life living in the Heavenly Kingdom in the here and now. In that very moment while in the hospital, I was born a new Creation in Your Being.
Amen
Advent Health ICU 2:00AM.
Wednesday July 10th 2024
Graduation Day
Hi, my name is Rachel--and no, I'm not Jewish, though it wouldn’t bother me; people make that mistake all the time, because of my physical features and my name. But there is one real Jewish student in my class, and that's Ruth. She's cool. I'm a student at St. Mary's Catholic School on the west side of the city. I'm 10 and graduated two weeks ago from the 5th Grade, which means that next term I'll be in Middle School, which for the Diocese is 6th through 8th grades. The Bishop thinks that 5th Grade is far enough to take Elementary School, and am I ever glad.
Allie--that's my best friend--and I were co-Valedictorians and were supposed to give a short speech at graduation that evening at the church. We were gathered in our school that day to attend a special lunch that the cafeteria workers were preparing to mark the occasion. The lunch was at eleven and it was just eight thirty when Sister Catherine started talking to us about how to act at graduation that night. Like we don't already know how to behave: don't whisper, don't pass notes, don't pick your nose, and on and on. I mean, we're not stupid. But Allie is crazy about Sister Catherine, thinks maybe she'll become a nun when she grows up.
Everyone was dressed up for the special lunch. The food is pretty good at St. Mary's--for a grade school. When we get into Middle School, then we can have burgers and fries, but for now we're stuck with mashed potatoes and roast beef and, of course, green beans. If you ask me, I'm not looking forward to the change. I'm sitting there checking everybody out, then remember to check my cell in with Sister. Despite all the shooter drills and stuff at the public schools, violent incidents almost never happen at parochial schools and we aren't allowed to hold onto our cells during class, except during recess and at lunch. Just then Allie walks into class and plumps down next to me. I ask her if she wrote her speech yet, for tonight.
"Piece of cake," she replies. She is so smart. Even though we are co-valedictorians, she is way smarter than me. I'm good at Math and Science, but Allie is an absolute genius and writing and speaking in public. My Dad says Allie is going to be a U.S. Senator when she grows up, but my Mom says Allie can do way better than that! She was still excited from the week before: to celebrate finishing first in our class, her parents bought her a puppy! A full blooded Basset Hound, with papers and everything. I am so jealous. My folks said we can't afford one right now; we don't have much money and receive a special parish subsidy to pay for my tuition. Mom says to keep my grades up, else I'll lose the subsidy and then have to go to public school. Ugh! I suppose that Allie's family is well off; besides, she's an only child and my folks have three other kids besides me.
"You got your speech written yet, Rach?" ask Allie. I frown, twist my lips.
"I'm working on it," I tell her. She looks knowingly at me.
"You want I should come over to your house after lunch and help out?" I dissolve into a big smile. Like I said, Allie is my best friend.
Out in the hallway there is a weird sound, like a cap gun exploding:
Pop!
Pop!
Pop!
It sounds just like the toy pistol my brother Franklin plays with. Mom won't let him take it outside the house because she's afraid it will make other people nervous. People in here are nervous now. I look at Allie and then we stare at Sister, who looks really upset.
"Stay where you're at, children," she commands, then advances to the exit and turns the lock over. Even through the locked door we can hear students running through the halls and shouting. "Follow me!" she says calmly, but there is an edge to her voice. She leads us back through the cloak closet and to a room that's used to store overhead projectors and DVDs and other AV stuff. She reaches inside and fumbles for a second with the light switch, then stands aside and we precede her into the room.
She pushes the door shut, locks it and says, "Don't make a sound!" We stand around until Sister tells us to sit along the walls that are out of the line of sight of the door, so bullets won't get us. Hurriedly, we comply. God, what's going on? I wonder. Suddenly a girl starts sobbing loudly, but Sister silences her with a hand on her shoulder. Through the closed door we hear more gunfire, closer now than before. Sister Catherine extinguishes the overhead light. Moments later there is a loud crash against the door and someone is shouting. This is too much: some of the other kids begin to whimper. It doesn't matter now, he knows we're in here. We can't hide.
Bullets rip through the wooden door, exploding into the opposite wall. A calendar on the wall flutters to the floor. Allie reaches out and grips my hand. I hold on tight. But the door holds; that is, until the shooter unleashes a cluster of shots around the lock, splintering the wood. With a crash the door flies open. We sit, breathlessly, in the darkness, afraid to make a sound. The light from the other room illuminates the shooter, first his arm as he reaches in to grope for the light switch, and then his face and torso as he calmly enters our hiding place. Clutched in his hands is an assault rifle.
I recognize him! I don't know his name, but I've seen him before, on the campus of the High School. And he looks so calm. I thought he would be a seething, snorting dragon of a creature, but he's only a kid. And I can tell that Sister is reacting the same way. Almost as if she wants to ask to see his hall pass. Sister speaks first.
"Bradley....? The shooter grins and winks at Sister and then shoots her in the chest. Sister Catherine folds up like a toy balloon and crumples to the floor. Allie lets go of my hand, jumps to her feet.
"Sister!" she shouts, after which the shooter fires into Allie's body--twice. Like Sister, she tumbles to the floor. I feel dizzy, as if nothing is real anymore, and am about to pass out when Delmar, the class dweeb, rises to his feet. He's out of the shooter's line of sight and so the killer can't see Delmar as he draws a pistol from his jacket, points it at the shooter, and squeezes the trigger. The shooter's whole head is vaporized and for an insane moment he continues standing there, gun in hand. Then, like Sister Catherine and Allie, he slips to the floor and drops straight to hell.
Epilogue
That was two weeks ago. Everyone skipped graduation; we got our diplomas in the mail. The Diocese said that all the schools must begin active shooter drills as soon as classes resume. It still doesn't seem real that Allie is forever gone. Every day I think to text her but then I remember. Everyone is like walking on egg shells around me and I hope that ends soon. The shooter was a 17-year-old student from the High School, who had been expelled the week before.
According to his parents, he had been "acting out" ever since. Some local political guy said Delmar is a hero and that it only proves that arming teachers and school staff is a good idea. Allie's parents are beside themselves; they were on the news on TV. They gave me her puppy, said they worked, couldn't take care of it, or give it the love it needs. They said it was what Allie would have wanted. I think it was too personal a reminder of the daughter they lost. I named her Allie.
distorted sounds
in the front yard
black feathers
leg pulling
at the end of the bed
a lingering spirit
cat meows ...
a half eaten quail
in the garden
bedtime
a dark entity zooming
through the doors
midnight vision
in the bedroom corner
a headless woman
Birds die faster than dots in poetry
The necks of letters are much longer than the necks of birds
Birds, like poetry, do not know how to beg
Birds die, but so do poems
***
The air left the composition of the sadness of the stomach
Wooden night covered the dead
Iron worms sewed up limbs with immobilization
What street is this? Why is it so dark in here?
And this is not a street, this is life and death
***
I want vegetables to die and not one child to suffer anymore at a diet dinner.
***
The meat screams at the pennant with red silence
Worms crawl out of coffins to the surface
Minced meat crawls out of the meat grinder
Corpses crawl into eyes and ears
The world around is destroyed in the pupils of the shot man
What can world poetry talk about besides war?
***
The cat tears up the mouse just for fun
A grenade tears a child apart because it has to be done
The sky moves and the clouds float forward
Mom cooks breakfast like no one is dead
***
Worms crawl underground
After the rain worms crawl to the surface
We read the letters of the rain on our faces
We crawl in a pool of blood without limbs
Winter is beginning
It's nuclear winter
***
Snow will forgive the grass everything
We'll all fall asleep in the snow and grass
We will be buried in snow and grass
But we won't have children anymore
Who will bury us?
Nuclear stations are growing like mushrooms
The forest turns white as a mouse
The ashes fall asleep
Ashes in the snow
***
Light for the blind
***
no one
died
in the cemetery
again
***
the trees are silent like the dead
before they are cut down
***
sound conservation
a bird reads a blizzard with a glance
***
cemetery without grave
almost like a church without parishioners
love without lovers
mountain without a bottom
god without religion
Alkada and his men rode hard and adamantly, circumventing Captain Hammer about two days back in the Barren Canyons. It took every ounce of discipline Alkada possessed not to confront Hammer and settle up on owed blood. However, catching up with NoLove and the Mob took precedence at the moment. Shyne loyalty must be upheld, he thought to himself when he made the decision. Besides, they were hot on their quarry’s trail by not even a half day's ride behind.
Alkada reached out to Skully. Vexed by what he saw, he signaled for everybody to stop. "They're already in Freedom Compound," Alkada announced. "Are you sure? The trail is still fresh," countered StreetLife, pointing down at the newly made hoof marks on the ground. "Yeah, I'm positive, and there's a lotta activity goin’ on. People are movin’ all about there. But I'm not sure how this is gonna play out if we gotta rock the bells."
"So, let's post up here and wait them out," StreetLife suggested. "No, that's no good. Whatever has brought them here has brought many others from all around. I guess that meeting the soldier told us about is pretty big. So, I'm sure our arrival won't be a total surprise.
Besides, waiting here may go from laying on three enemies to being greeted by a battalion, and having Republic soldiers at our backside don't sit proper with me. Not to mention, I don't believe Baron Black will take too kindly to us jus’ kickin’ grass so close to his compound. He and my father go way back, and that alone will warrant me payin’ him the respect of a visit. And it's a good bet we're bein’ watched right now." "Rahhhhh," Skully screamed overhead, confirming Alkada's statement.
Alkada reached out to the bird with connection and awareness and saw that several sentries from Freedom Compound were watching them. A moment later, Alkada snapped out of the connection he harbored with the bird. "Yeah, we're bein’ watched. But, right now, it’s just curiosity as to why we are clustered here talkin’ without proceedin’ to the compound. So many others have passed through here recently. We're just one of many, but it won't be much longer before mild curiosity turns to violent interest."
About Avery Brown
Avery Brown is a native of Brooklyn, New York currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. As a first time author, Brown was inspired to write this story due to the passing of a dear friend at the hands of police. The Blood Sagas came about in hopes of keeping the memory of his friend alive for generations to come. He understands the beauty and passion necessary to create a space in which characters can explore complex issues in a fantasy world. He is now currently working on his second book in 4-part the Blood Sagas series. Passionate about his craft, Brown is also hard at work on his next project, Manimal, a fantasy thriller, that illuminates the magic of the Indian Nations.
More about the Blood Sagas on Avery Brown's website.
London’s Ramp
He still has
London’s
Doggy ramp,
He’s not
Sure why
He hasn’t
Been able
To let
That go.
Taylor Dibbert is a writer, journalist, and poet in Washington, DC. “Rescue Dog,” his fifth book, was published in May.
