"a shepherd's stones..."

oh clumsy
phillistine,
silly
giant
spewing braggardly
insults,
trying to provoke a
fight,
or flight... 

do not taunt me
with your
invitation to gamble,
to choose a man,
to play the
odds of who
is bigger,
faster,
scarier...

do not ask me
to compare
your Goliath
thunderings, 
with the David song
in my heart...

you will not win...

my five well-worn,
softly-honed
shepherd stones:

innocence
purity,
compassion,
temperance,
honesty...

are already mine...
I do not have to
wager them...

and they know their
target

they will
smote the ego...
the
arrogance that would
try to pit a big you
against a little me...
with the simple
fact that there is
only God
as
All-in-all

so,
do not try to weigh me
down with
the heaviness of what I have
not proven

I will not be shackled by
the cumbersome
letter...
I will walk freely like a
child in the
garment of
the spirit...

I will not carry
the weapons of culture

but a shepherd's
small
bag...
holding
only
what I have
proven...
I do not need a
sword...
slicing words and
cutting thoughts
to surgically remove
an absence...
why, this is
nonsense.

I will celebrate
the presence of God,
the presence of good,
the presence of Mind....

I can see,
right here, and right now,
that in me,
that is,
in my heart,
in my mind,
in my consciousness of you
dwells only
one man,
the man of
God...

no philistine
or
pharisee

not lion
or lamb

but All-in-all

the
child
of
God...

only the child of
God...

now come down
from your
high horse
you silly
giant

I am not impressed...

I am not afraid...

why should
I stand aghast
at your
suggested
nothingness...
the absense
of the
somethingness of
God, good...

there is only the somethingness
of Love...therefore
I will

fear not...