Runaway Bride

The rain is playing
r
i
v
u
l
e
t
s
across my smiles.


I skip through gravelly basins of ripples and drifting dogwood petals
searching for healing
timidly glancing upward toward Your whispers.

Your tears trickle downsky to mingle with my own--
d
r
i
p
p
i
n
g
pale fingerlets that burn into the white flowers
lying strewn across the forest floor

like a wedding veil thrust carelessly aside.


My heart is dithering with fear.
I fear to trust You
fear surrendering my hand, my mind, my life
to Your embrace.
You watch me with jealous eyes
flashing in thunder and love.

I try to hunker down amongst the slimy brown leaves
but I cannot sleep, cannot dream, cannot clear the rain from my mind.

Even when I peer into the mirrors below me I see Your face reflected.
I traipse like a bashful child through the puddles
to the end of the forest aisle where You are waiting
patient
smiling tenderly at Your bride.

--L.H.