Holy Mackerel

Holy Mackerel.
Something smells fishy.

A man stands on a soapbox,
Bible in hand, draped, drooped on one side
words falling, failing,
like lead bullets flailing,
fired at passersby,
flames from a dragon’s mouth.

A common drive-by sermon gone south.
And like moths to a flame,
it burns, it scorches the earth,
but fails to reach the icy hearts of the walking dead.
They stammer, crowds stagger toward the grave,
as serious as a heart attack.

But the Word that should attack black hearts,
should set ablaze the souls of men,
was never set ablaze itself.

And so, the cold blast of the bullhorn
doesn’t do what he wants it to do
but what it doesn’t want to do,
it does that very thing.

Nothing.



Yet the man who kneels,
who feels the Spirit’s call
a blaze shut up in his bones
he grows weary of holding it in,
but not faint.

Power from on high
raises high his voice in praise.
Tongues of blaze above
join the song,
and to the throng of frozen wanderers,
the glow breaks through

A warm gospel, preached in love.

So much glow,
like the bush on Sinai
a blaze that does not burn,
except to spurn the work of Satan,
whose sulfuric future never fades.

Even now, the eternal smoke
fills the nostrils of the great deceiver.
But his torches of fury
are no match for the heart
that burns with the Word.

He’s but a matchstick,
small and flickering,
next to the ocean of pure water
flowing from the work of God,
sowing seeds of truth.



Even when round he danced
as martyrs burned at the stake,
the incense drifted to the heavens
a face upward raised,
and ashes blew with the Wind,
a fragrant offering.

What a dark day
when the Logos Dei
crossed out the sin
that scratched “death”
in the hearts of saints

But then

He wrote their names upon His palms
with crimson ink,
and commanded, “Live!”

And so it is.
glow came into our world.



Oh, that heaven’s coals
would make holy lips,
to speak the good news

Filled with the Spirit,
the Holy Third,
the Great Helper,
the Indweller,
the Baptizer of the Church.

Sending blaze.

Something’s burning.

Something’s coming.

The wind is rising.
The Spirit moves.

Come, Holy Spirit. Come.