72 DAYS

I know enough about God
to know not to count the days
not to wait with an expectation
of a specific thing--only to hold
the spoken word close to chest
heart in prayer, remember 
what the bishop said in the heat
of the Spirit with the challenge
hanging in the the air--72 DAYS

I know that wrapped in the plain sense 
of sound is a mystery waiting to unfold, 
to show me something
about my life my future my now
and that 72 is a signal of something
more than days than seconds 
flipping away on clocks

I know God enough to know it
will happen under the cover of
dark of skin of soil
that it will germinate seed of deliverance
that this 2 months and 11 days--
give or take an hour or three--
will change me because I expect it to
wrap me in its soulful arms
tap me on my shoulder when
I am sleep, wake me to its possibilities
shake me into action, make
me know the way things ought to be

and that I will pray my way
to a whole new way of believing
of living of loving of hoping
that in 72 DAYS--just having to 
write it this often, my world
will be new and strange
and I won't count down
to it because 72 is a magic
number until you get to 1

© Valerie Bridgeman
April 13, 2013