Samuel, Interrupted

*Dedicated to Samuel
[Hey Samuel: What up big baby? How you dooooon playboy? Let's write this poetry son! Now go head and tell the folks what you was thinking that lonely night of ages past!]

------------------------/A Moment Etched; Samuel's Thoughts On Being Summoned By God In the Temple

Dreams

of laurels of speech victorious proclamations of my future acclaim

an elder priest smiling on his protégée perhaps pleasantly

glimpsing into a mirror at former shades of himself the sun at our backs

long shadows cast on the peoples gathered en masse gleaming eyes

squinting (before the introduction of a prophet)

blended with vivid memories of dialogue mom eyes reddened

suppressing tears of absence, reunion, then prolonged absence again

intuitive knowing this discordant pattern is forever…..

a mother from afar, conflicted assurances: family never dies

(twirling strands of her hair in my diminutive hands)

yet I will be missed…then a voice foreign, tongue airy

mysteriously disembodied almost language

of garbled whispers angelic jarred awake vigorous heart palpitations

candle light flickering pre-pubescent sweat

Eli’s eyes dim a metaphor poetic rendering boy in shadows of uncertainty

separated from parents and kin most of the time afraid

summoning sentimental séances speaking sappily “Samuel”

yet calling forth a stranger, a ghost a non-entity

addressing me with conviction a sincerity and warmth never heard before  

I am a soul yet to be revealed  

the temple is my house but it is not a house the search

endless for meaning and specificity of identity a bit

delusional maybe or maybe destiny has deigned to dance

in a culture desperate

for divination to know a grander meaning

and a boy desperate to do more than wipe up blood of slain goats

tossing and turning restlessly sleeping on the cold floor so

when God stares at you in your sleep and speaks

you want  the bland life you thought you knew shattered into a thousand shards;

at the roll call of new possibility of greatness you have no choice

but to seize the moment

(and proclaim “Here I am”…three times for dramatic affect)

------------1 Samuel 3:1-8

And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision. And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep; That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down. And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child.