Jennifer Schuldt

Sunset, Parking Lot

I saw heaven standing open

~ Revelation 19:11 ~

Ocean rollers of color held us transfixed,

the sun submerging in earth, ablaze with

uncommon glory on an ordinary day

brought on by a storm south of the store,

where I stopped in the bustling lot,

beneath a wall of cloud, amethyst and blue,

citrine cumulus, a glowing band chartreuse,

morphing before me, slow kaleidoscope,

a burning aquarium of color framed only

by the limits of widened eyes, unbound

by the laws of sunset, which require paling

past the boiling point of every neon—

this pulsed on in maybe the way it will be

when You come back and most expect nothing

but sutures for the torn sky and disregard

the flexed nostrils and the horse’s piaffe,

most packing up after long hours of labor

funneling into subways and onto highways

as the last sun descends on the tattered world.

Though some will stop and watch, like me,

a shop-worn woman ready to go home,

and the pierced man with the sleeve of tattoos

three cars over. We are the only two aghast at the sky,

glory-bombed and reveling in the altering light.

Song for the Broken

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit

~ Psalm 34:18 ~

Unspoken promises hang,

limp vines along this path so clear before,

now overrun.

I alone am searching

as shadows claim daylight’s place

I stammer your name into this wilderness

where wandering feels endless

parting the leaves that fail

to break love’s fall.

Sunlight streaks through trees,

last fragments landing on touch-me-nots

in the stream’s shallow valley

frilling the murk where minnows glide

shining on the current’s pull

washing slowly through me

as a hovering universe of tiny flies

weaves a dancing nest of light.

They have only moments left,

You whisper,

these living sparks,

intense as ends of lightning,

and like the worst ache,

born fleeting.

Jennifer Schuldt is a writer and emerging poet who savors the natural world. She lives with her husband and two teenage children in the Chicago suburbs and teaches online courses at Moody Bible Institute. In her spare time, she enjoys painting, reading, and taking long walks with friends.