Made  Without  Hands

Jack  Jenkins

I walk this path

around the lake

not every day,

but over the years

I’ve walked it a lot.

I’ve come to think of it

as a day’s cycle,

one rotation of the earth.

It seems the same,

this graveled path

with lots of stones.

I think of these stones

as all the words I’ve spoken

in my seventy years.

What I said yesterday

lies before me,

what I say today

will show tomorrow.

Whether I admit to it or not

the stones all bear my name.

I have spoken a lot of words.

I picked one up today,

a fragment that once was whole

but with sharp edges now.

Maybe this is why we need shoes.

You know God walks this path.

He has to.

It’s the only path around the lake.

He knows the situation.

So if the words I speak

create this path,

I can’t complain.

Maybe one day

we may take off our shoes.

Maybe one day

we will stop casting stones.