Please listen to this personal audio intro to the poem from Mike …

LAMENT FOR ONE CONFRONTING GOD’S SILENCE

by Michael D. Warden

is this what you wanted? 
a rage of tears,
a torrent that now cannot be dammed
faithfully collected in deep reservoirs of believing
until his eyes could no longer contain
the agony of his rended heart?

they dive hot from his face 
they splatter when they hit 
each another tiny suicide
sacrificed for the life that should have been his
that you should have brought
that you said you would.

is this your dream? your wild desire?

love comes in the morning of our dreams
sliding over our bodies easy like silk sheets at sunrise
awakening desire like the skin at the nape of a lover's sweet neck
it whispers its promises
its seductions entrance
we are taken unawares by its wiles too deep to deny
and soon realize our hearts are already given over 
to eternity.

is this what you wanted?
is this you at all?

love, you
are the inevitable debt
that all who taste your nectar come to bear.
how could we do naught
but fall toward the beckoning life?
it is you who have ruined us
you and your seductions, the promise of grace,
but where does love go 
at the end of the line?

what is this bleeding grief that comes to hope?

your word is tested
but not here
not here
not here anymore

are you looking? 
do you even see it at all?

he is dying
he is dying for you