Mist-kissed

What is your life? 

You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

James 4:14

This Thing that wears our patience thin with grace-lent grin and groan 

That hones the character within these skiffs of skin and bone 

That tests the measure of a man and adjusts attitude 

That vexes people’s precious plan with trouble’s interlude 

That breaks the hull of hearts and dreams for love’s incumbent Chief 

And makes us more the same, it seems, because love’s price is grief 

That proves the master of the mind by what we do and say 

Where consequence is never blind to what we sow today 

This Thing that makes us laugh and weep and keep score but to fail 

Where both the bitter and the sweet are poured from Mercy’s Grail 

This Thing fashioned with gifted days time garners into years 

Is but a breath of misted haze that softly disappears 

Until the Giver of its lease through farewell’s ordained Must 

Retrieves once more the Sacred Piece that outlives dust-to-dust 

And ends This Thing that we call life where what seems commonplace 

Will rend this wink of joy and strife to unveil Mercy’s Face 

© Janet Martin