#blackjeanjacket

“Religion is a fickle thing,” he tells me, with a lazy smile, as if we weren’t both stubborn believers. Not quite in the way our backgrounds would suggest or had hoped, but believers nonetheless.

There’s been trauma from religion,
There’s been strength from faith.
The enforced hasn’t benefited,
Only inhibited growth
To something more.
Something more than
Has always been,
The elusive “someday”
Of today’s ambitions.
Setbacks and ambitions both
Barely voiced over a whisper
To an almost empty room.

But God has been seen,
Held up before wandering eye
In celebration of the Sacrament,
In the laughter of companionship,
In the tear-stained faces,
Under tree canopy and open sky.

God has been seen in
Poetry stanza and
Song lyric,
Long nights under
Star-studded sky and
Various colored fairy lights.

“You’ve always been able to hold on to your faith and your beliefs, while also listening to good music, enjoying concerts, and just generally being a cool person. I really admire you for that, and this jacket is a symbol of that.”

~A.G. 8/12/19