the stonemason (1st Peter 2:2-10)

we hand you the design
     the committee has come up
  with, so that the wall will
           be layed out in that dogmatic,
           unwavering line (no doubts or
                      deviations) we expect,
        but after a quick glance,
     you simply place it in the back
             of the truck and start
  to work;

where we would toss
        aside
  those who have
     have been skipped haphazardly
              over the world's waves,
        they become the tiestones
     to hold the sections together,
  while those wearied from
           their struggles shape the
      soft gentle curves;

untying the bandanna from around
        your head,
  you quietly rub the dirt
     out of the nicks and crevices
     caused as they have been ignored,
            you gather up the children
                and youth,
        pouring them into hollow spaces,
  as the aggregate to hold
             us all together;

when we expect to
     be the pride of your
                  handiwork,
  you quietly pick up the
        broken, the chipped, the left-over
    slivers we kick out of our way,
       placing them as the capstones
  on the dry stone wall
  you are building in the
              kingdom.

(c) 2011  Thom M. Shuman