Bare Toes
With bare toes caressing tall grass,
Cooling, soothing, and quite relaxed.
I took each step that gaily passed,
And smiled and sighed a lazy laugh.
The passive clouds, skies, white, and blue,
Butterflies and birds were merry too.
Scented flowers, how sweetly they smell.
All creatures humming, all was well.
Whimsically, wandering, and warm,
Shining rays, no hint of a storm.
Trials, and misfortune, what are they,
There's no obstacles in my way.
Broken sharp painful unseen glass,
Cutting right through a tender mass,
I thought I had a perfect clear view,
Dear Lord, I should have worn a shoe.
David M. Rushton
Why?
Why is random pain had by some
While others are exalted in boundless fun?
So scant are those Deaf, Blind, and Dumb,
But the numbers aren't few when you are one.
Twisted looks of pity, sadness and fear
Blend with laughter, teasing, a childish jeer.
And if they're noble they pause for a time
To tell you it's ok, you're doing fine.
All the while constantly proving,
You're still human quite able of doing.
Hence admiration, though they wouldn't trade
Their warming sun for your rainy day.
Ironic its conception and frightfully cold,
Yet overcoming pain changes the soul.
And when it's conquered you will find
Another difference, a countenance sublime.
David M. Rushton
Unfinished Canvas
My clear searching eyes anxiously view
A pigmented canvas, a spectrum's hue.
Pastels faintly muted and slightly pale,
A seemingly whole portrait fully unveiled.
Not solely the eye, the ears as well,
Hear colors speak, wondrous tales to tell.
Sounds of laughter and happiness undaunted,
Tones echoing rhythms gaily unflaunted.
And the ear and eye weave into touch,
As the hand seeks varied dyes full and lush.
Delicately defined, the finger can feel
The beginning and end of each stroke revealed.
Beside these sensations smells also portray
Fragrant gardens abounding and brightly arrayed.
Fumes pleasant and pure enhance the light
Nearly completing the image described by sight.
But all senses apparent cannot discern
Something is missing truly unlearned,
And only my spirit can fully surmise,
You coupled with me makes the canvas alive.
David M. Rushton
Faith
If Faith is that which is hoped for,
And which certainly isn't seen.
Then how does a belief in it,
Honestly come to be gleaned.
Is it trust in the doctor's hand,
Obedience to a Father's command,
The love of one that we adore,
Or the past which is seen no more.
What if the worlds were faithless,
Would we all never understand,
That which is the most important,
Requires more than the eye can demand.
For Faith is a test for the truth
A step beyond what is known.
It demands somewhat of a trial,
If a witness will ever be shown.
David M. Rushton
Shades of Red
Flashing, flickering, and flaunting,
Beaming, blaring, and bickering,
Gleaming, glaring and giggling,
In rows and symmetry combining.
Squared and smeared in those shades of red,
Looking, hoping, watching, demanding,
To view the same colors ahead,
In rows and symmetry combining.
A procession of followers,
A concert of imitators,
A band of duplicators,
In rows and symmetry combining.
And two by two they mock and lead,
It's the brake we surely must heed,
Or pain and sorrow always follows,
In rows and symmetry combining.
David M. Rushton
Unseen Force
With power it moves by an unseen force.
In versatile headings advanced by course
It conquers stillness, and assumed order,
Creating waves, pushing oaks, man's shoulder.
Through stirring objects it's uniquely viewed,
Yet we feel its presence whenever it moves.
Sometimes warming us sometimes chilling us
It will ever be after we are dust.
Here harnessing its power we surely do,
But in all honesty, who’s serving who.
Perhaps truly we should listen closer,
We may hear what it is really after.
Its strength and might influence what is done,
And it is driven of course by the sun.
David M. Rushton
Thee
Thou art indeed an image divine,
Radiant, blissful, exceedingly fine.
Gold, silver, precious emeralds, and jade,
Compared to thy beauty all doth fade.
Burning Sun, luminous Moon, brilliant stars,
Wondering eyes gaze in awe afar.
Celestial beyond man's ability,
Heaven's creations patterned after thee.
Of all conceptions which have been thought,
Tis true thy apparent comeliness ought
Have arrested all further beginnings,
And culminated entire endings.
Yet everything that becomes anew
Reminds the soul and hints a clue,
That thy dazzling figure gives the lead,
To all that is and shall ever be.
And true apocalypse gloomily comes,
If an eternal season sadly is done,
Without thy pure hand given to mine.
To commence by course a noble line.
0h that thou with soft ear, hear my plea,
For by destiny I beckon thee.
If for a purpose we live and breathe,
Of truth, thee in my child's face I'll see.
And though glass sand shall inevitably fall,
Nevertheless time presents no wall.
For God's plan is infinitely wise,
We as one, forever solemnized.
David M. Rushton
70
Moving at 70 I stare
Out of the corner of my eye.
I pay little attention
Only to what's in front of me
My vision narrows,
And I don't care.
I've got to get where I'm going.
I have no time.
Others are doing the same
Trying to get ahead of me
The road narrows.
There's no more time.
David M. Rushton
Life
Sadly we watch man encased in pine
Motionless, frigid, dormant, sublime.
Then Darkness engulfs that which it must
As willing dirt conquers lifeless dust.
Yes crypts, tombs, sepulchers, and the grave
Swallow bones, sinew, flesh, all that's laid.
And worms eat heartily cadavers
While the mind pains, truly what matters
But be not troubled, blind, unknowing
Funerals soothe only the living
The departed know not an ending.
Our passing is but the beginning.
For acquiescent dirt spews out man
Incorruptible, perfect, as planned
Arising from eternal slumber
Bright, joyful, infinite, our number.
Then looking upon death thought unpleasant,
A moment, a season, an instant,
It was a dream from which we've awaken
Life never again to be taken.
David M. Rushton
Thirst
I behold you in my mind's ocean.
Your face, so familiar, blurs into the deep
Cooling as it descends into
A thousand countenances unknown to me.
I follow hoping to quench my thirst
Like the pool in the road, each step closer
Brings me further away, never quite making it
If I could drink would you be there?
Or are you as salted water, increasing thirst
With every gulp, swelling madness.
Searching deeper into the abyss.
I wonder, will my thirst ever blur?
David M. Rushton
Paradise Found
Slithering, and tempting, the fruit so appealing
Slaughtering two-fold innocense by revealing
Eternal good and evil to they that partook,
And the Morning Star laughed at God's plan thought forsook.
Somber Death, dismal destruction, the brow's own sweat
Mixed with glad births and creations before unmet.
Yes adverse pain and sorrow surely awoke,
And with them pleasure and joy were also provoked.
For in Adam's fore-ordained fall was man to be,
And for he to be was to have joy completely.
Happiness, peace, health, joy, infinite delight
Known only through sorrow, sickness, pain, all that frights.
Truly it was said, "Behold man becomes as Us,"
Knowing good from evil, a covenant a trust.
Which implies that agency the greatest of gifts
Must be used wisely if sorrow becomes true bliss.
And so now learned man was barred from that childish state
To rise, fall, live, die, live, make many a mistake,
But with God's knowledge, progression, an ageless round,
Righteousness over wickedness, Paradise Found.
David M. Rushton
Mom
My mind's thoughts cannot verbalize
All my mother's gifts I've realized.
And endowments truly I've received
From a matriarch's myriad of deeds.
From a suckling child to a raised man,
Innumerable the seasons span.
I glimpse back, various years gone by.
Now noble and great, you are why.
With trials I've faced definite and sure,
You were always there, part of the cure.
If you could've taken away my pain
To place upon yourself to remain,
You would have done so with little thought
Hoping to love as the Savior sought.
For this and more you'll always be
Greater than the grandest mother to me.
Whether in your presence currently,
Or away starting my family,
Please never forget and understand,
Always I'll love you wherever I am.
David M. Rushton
Dad
It is certainly not burdensome to see
My Father's eyes patterned and mirrored in me,
And more than the shadowy color we share,
Our eyes view what isn't apparent but still there.
Conversing upon significant events,
Examining leaders, their assumed pretense,
Predicting occurrences that will likely be,
We concur on those concepts that make us free.
But it's more than the world we envision,
Or others rhetoric easily given.
It's the spiritual choices, life's decisions.
And the sure knowledge of He who has risen.
These are the teachings of my father I've learned
Because of the eye's honesty I've discerned.
And whatever challenges by course be observed,
My love for my father transcends any word.
David M. Rushton
