Excerpt from “Pressing On” by Author Billy Charles Root

Just out of Reach

Have I slid into reverse?
Have I received another curse?
It seems like you were just there, but that was long ago.
You’re in front of me but I have to squint to see.
Have I pushed you away from me?
What is this new darkness?
And how long must it last?
I’m like a dog on a chain that almost reaches the sidewalk,
a rat in a cage and I can only get my head through the bars
I can almost reach but you’re just out of reach
I can almost touch you but not quite no not quite.
Has grace become a trophy for the end of the race?
It used to be all I needed for the strength of pace.
The hell hounds are biting again
Their chain seems to be one link longer than mine.
Meanwhile sin is no longer crouching at the door,
it’s jumping and pounding it down.
Did you leave? Maybe I just turned around.
Yeah that’s it maybe I just turned around.
Or maybe I forgot.
Caught up in this life and forgot at what price I was bought.
My tendons are stretched to the max as I reach but you’re just out of reach.
I know, I’ll read your word. You know like I used to when I was freed.
I ate the cracker and drank the wine, the covenant of our friendship divine.
I went to church but was left with the heartbreak that cries out, IS THIS IT?
Just a few in a pew with pretty hair and fancy shoes
Or is there more?
Have I missed it?
Or have we all?
There has to be more than these four walls
I want to march around them like Jericho and yell a Lion’s roar
till the walls of hell crumble down in piles on the floor.
I stretch and reach but you’re just out of reach.
If only I would let go.
Then maybe I could look back at this point and see that it is now just out of reach.

Categories: author

Tags: author, book, Christian, Christian Poetry, Creative Talents Unleashed, creative writing, god, journey, life, poem, poems, poet, Poetry, questions, reach, writer, writing