Tongues Afire
Tongues Afire
Open Arms (Poem)
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-2:56

Open Arms (Poem)

How open are God's arms for me?

Generated image
  • Poem by Johnny Levy

  • Production by James Butler


My son Jadon

Two years old

Climbs into my lap

Like he owns the place.

Like how you walk into your own house

Or put on your own clothes

Or open your own bag of chips.

The audacity of going home.

The boldness of acceptance,

Of knowing you are loved

And welcomed.

Makes himself cozy,

Inserts his pointer finger

Into his mouth, and just

Breathes. Staring up at me.

Absorbing my face

With his brown eyes.

Chest rising and falling

Rising and falling.

A language between us.

No questions.

Sometimes he just likes

To be with me.

Not saying anything.

Not doing anything.

Just beholding the face that loves him.

And I welcome this.

In fact, I love this. I love

What he knows, what

He doesn’t know. His

Audacity. Simplicity.

He’s innocent. He doesn’t yet know

The sting of arms closed.

Only these open ones.

And that’s what a father wants:

He wants his son to know.

That daddy loves him,

To know it in his bones,

A constant like sunrise

Or breathing. My love

Is like that to him, I think.

Like breathing. Like the world

Being as he left it, when he

Gets out of bed every morning.

Something you could

Close your eyes

And trust fall back into.

And that gives me joy.

Because I mean him good.

Only good. I’m his father.

Lover of his soul.

And do you think

When my boy is

Grabbing my knees

Pulling himself up

Into my lap,

Do you think

Hell itself could close

My open arms?

Like if the world were on fire

And I were crumbling to cinders

I'd stand with outstretched fingers

As long as I could.

What if God

FEELS like that

About us?

What if the sun

On your face

Is "I love you?"

What if His arms

Are open.

Ferocious love

That cannot be broken

By death or distance,

The reality of which this

Love for my son is only a witness?

Can that be?

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