Hymn One (Unsung)

I am very excited to be sharing with the Central Family each Wednesday a series of prayers, hymns and psalms from my brother Mike Carriger. Mike is an English Teacher/Chairman of the English Department at Lawrence High School, teaches college classes and is a member of the Southside Church of Christ in Lawrence. Mike is only a few months away from receiving his PhD in English from the University of Kansas. Mike will be sharing his inner feelings with us in a variety of modern day psalms.

Hymn One (Unsung)

We glimpse an awful depth. A flim-flam drudge and worry
empty us, past many yesterdays through which we fought, coasted.
Now vacant with a hollow moan—
cars lurch in ant rows. Coffee brews. Din. Red eyes press the screen flicker and hurry
nearer icons, streaming dreams, lists to-do, messages sent, deleted, re-posted.
It’s in our bones,

spreading. LORD, it’s spreading. Arbitrary mechanical progressions—the tick,
the thought, the think, already thought, gained, never-gained—the tock.
Man’s aged-old panic, a life lost.
Some creek once fished. A bike splayed on a front yard—the click,
The freezer’s slice of wedding cake. The dusty veil and lace under bed—the clock.
Hope, regret, fond memory at a cost.

On You, LORD, we lock our eyes. We set our soul’s sweet time.
With finely-tuned precision we simply say take us when,
by and by, You
want, see fit. This rock still spins ever-shaky, warbling, sublime.
We rarely sense the crisis-moment’s jilt, lunge, and creak. It’s then, for service, we ask more days, maybe a few.

Michael P. Carriger