9. Meet Me

"When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 'Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?' He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it, : 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hand all the law and the prophets.'" Matthew 22: 34-40

*****

People above the Law.

Deliberate love

in place of mindless ritual.

Repainting the old rules

in a new coat of love.

So maybe you wouldn't mind

if I admit that, for tonight,

I'd prefer we met

down at the pub

Next round of Smithwick's on me

While we pull up a stool to hear you tell the

updated parables--

Samaritan stockbrokers,

prodigal deadbeat dads--

And not in that stained glass library across the street

where your stories

just don't sound the same

Be still and know,

In there it's still

I know

But still, tonight

I'd rather be somewhere

I can laugh out loud

with my friend.