When Short Our Lives

Christ knew his time was short – I know
His health was good, but deep below
Things were not right – collision time –
Two angled freight trains' tracks in line.

A fellow said that of the Jews –
He figured it would be the news
Some time ’bout now, except it came
When Hitler played his pre-empt game –

He noted how before the war
Two freight trains likewise hurtled fore;
Two factors for the Jews he said –
First, anti-Semites' lust for red.

The second had to do with land –
The Jews in Europe could not stand
Upon the fertile earth, own farms –
Old rules backed up by Europe's arms.

He said, "It had to come some day
You can't keep on that rigid way
And I think that one or many could
Survive intact, as people should.

"If Hitler had not done his thing,
It would have come – though what I sing
Is not the PC way to go –
But read the lit – and then you'll know."

We know. I've heard of other folks
Who knew – why, take that yarn for Stu
Of Arthur Davis – years before
They saw, and showed him out the door.

But people say "Don't talk that way",
"Look up", "Be positive", they say;
But no – he knew – the records say –
Four years he knew his fateful day.

We get a choice – despite our fears –
A choice not big, but after tears
We get a choice of what we'll do:
Get off the train, or see it through.

The choice is ours to angle shift,
But even there our train-tracks drift
Towards the crash, it has to come –
Collision course – on rails we run.

I heard they scrambled, hero like,
To save their mom and set things right;
For them, they said, "What cash is for –
To bend the tracks, buy time some more."

But no, they knew: life carried on
Despite it all – some things went wrong
Which gave to anger three bright rings
To focus on as arrows sing.

How can the truth be said today
When myth's that strong, truth's pushed away?
In past, in present, up the road –
Denying crops, though seed's been sowed.

I met one lady, far from here,
Who's on that road it would appear;
She cannot make her life respond –
Results and acts don't correspond.

And so, she lies – ’cept to her friend
Whose glance said all about the end,
And wondered if I knew the facts –
If I'd get hurt from faulty acts.

And me? I know it's premature –
Just listen close and you'll be sure –
It's in my words, my acts, my ways –
From deep within – foreshortened days –

It's like I sense the angled tracks,
A sense of where my freight train whacks
The other one – seen, sensed, or hunched –
Slow grinding rub, or sudden crunch.

Like Jesus, Jews, one lady, Art –
We know, don't talk, but live our part –
It's there to see, as plain as day –
"Train wreck's ahead, no other way".

For me, I got reprieve I know
A shift of rails, but even so
It's just a shift – what now to do?
Live not for me, but more for You.

(Time was, there was no capital –
The you (for folks) was how I'd spell
That word) – 'just give it all away'
But then I heard the Rabbi say –

"Constraint is half of life you know;
It's not just ‘give’ and ‘seeds I sow’;
God helps us give but also says,
‘This time restraint's what better pays’.

“So, best you tune your life to His,
Live out your days of earthly biz
As channel of His loving care –
A gutsy move, if such you'll dare.”

She asked, "Have you said, ‘Here I am’
When God has asked if you're His man?
Not ‘Here’ as if to mark some spot,
But ‘Here – I'm Yours, and all I've got’.

And then she asked about our tears –
“What road's been walked, or now appears
Which must be walked before you can
Respond to Him, and be His man?”

"That's more the point of life”, said she;
That Rabbi spoke right through to me;
She cleared away confusion's trash,
And faced me with the words she asked.

So, what of it, now time is short?
Despite the doctor's good report;
I know it, so did Christ – so what?
Who cares what's in the cards, or luck?

As Frankel said, no one can take
Our choice, for it is ours to make
’Bout how we will respond today
To what in life may come our way.

So, given days with front-and load
Of quality, there's seed I've sowed,
And more I can sow today,
Each step I take along my way.

So Lord, what would you have me do?
I do not wish to play the fool
(For me, that is); help me to walk
Each day as Yours not just be talk.

Except of course, when talk's an act –
Something that's done, a crucial fact
Of life – like you in your short days –
You spoke some words still heard today.

"Stu, border-crossing's just not seen;
It's seen, of course, but more, I mean
Folks need to see, what you have seen –
Then blessed they'll be – that's what I mean.

"Blessed are the eyes which see like you,
For it affects all they will do;
So share with them what you have seen,
Thus bless their lives with where you've been."

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