Comfort In the Words-a poem

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith for the Years of Winter… ©

Even when I have wandered

Into dark deep woods

Without a compass, so far lost

Not even moss to be a guide

On North or any other side

So lost I cannot grasp

The horns of sanctuary

In the Word

I still find comfort in the words

A rhyme perched bird-like on a branch

A hymn in stanzas of the leaves

A story writ on fallen bark of birch

Or writer’s oak

A story writ from end to start

John Robert McFarland

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

I tweet as yooper1721.

They called them heroes. They said, “Thank you for your service.” Then forgot about them. Joe Kirk lost a leg. Lonnie Blifield lost his eyes. Victoria Roundtree lost her skin. “Zan” Zander lost his mind. Four homeless and hopeless Iraqistan VETS who accidentally end up living together on an old school bus. With nowhere to go, and nothing else to do, they lurch from one VAMC to another, getting no help because, like the thousands of other Iraqistan VETS who are homeless, unemployed, and suicidal, they do not trust the system and refuse to “come inside.” After another fruitless stop, at the VAMC in Iron Mountain, Michigan, a doctor is found dead, and the VETS are accused of his murder. Distrustful, strangers to America, to each other, and even to themselves, they must become a unit to learn who really murdered the doctor, so that they can be free. In doing so, they uncover far more, about themselves and about their country, than they dared even to imagine. Available from your local independent book store, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BOKO, Books-A-Million, Black Opal Books, and almost any place else that sells books. $8.49 or $12.99 for paperback, according to which site you look at, and $3.99 for Kindle or other ebook. Free if you can get your library to buy one.