Life-lover, yours was the hour and the kingdom.

Said Matthew to the flesh, “be ready,” and this

was a gift, and it was good.

The free gift, reader, is not these words:

not what they mean to you here, now,

in this place.

The clock on my wall was a gift: it plays

music to tell the time. If there is no light,

it plays no music:

the blind are the blind in all things.

Do you understand? A call to your savior

is the quotidian—

lest you be judged.