Photo by Galus Muhati

6:00 PM

BACK TO A GARDEN

After a while of walking

Through death’s long chasm

Let me rest a moment

In green valleys

Let my heart take pleasure

In good food

In the company of your image

And the taste of sweet drink

Photo by Kelvin Luyakha

Because in the green and good spaces of the earth

I remember to see the garden in each of us

To see it’s blossoms in the multicolored hijabs of first avenue

And the multi-shaded patchwork of our melanin levels

To see the goodness of a pure creation

In the flow of humans down a market street

And to hear the reverberations of Eden

In the multiplicity of our mother tongues

Photo by Zakariye Abukar

Will you awake our leaden hearts

To hear the call of He who is first born

Of those who are perishing?

So that we might accept the invitation

To step aside from this ceaseless path

Towards our own ruin

This senseless rush to end ourselves

By sword and speech

And sit a moment in cool green spaces

With our feet at last still in fresh water

And our hearts at last at rest

With our Creator and His created ones

As our eyes shut now

And our weary bodies beg for something more than simple sleep

Would You, the Maker of all things

Make us anew

So that instead of seeking

Our own mortal gratification

Our own finite victories

We would instead

Reach our hands out to You

And to each other

And walk hand in hand in hand

Back to a garden

Amen.