The Child in Their Midst 

The Child in Their Midst 

The child, 
my inner child,  
or the childlike faith
yet in me, 
does not demand more of the seen 
than he ought. 

He knows there is so much
He doesn’t know.
He doesn’t forget
all things beautifully unknown,
The always more
on which his seen reality rests,
The everything
of which he never expects to know.

He hasn’t grown up too much
to be fooled
into believing that all he sees
is all there is, 
or that he could control
any of it. 

He is young enough
to have
never tried, 
and wise enough
to not
yet think
to try his hand.

Intuitively trusting
the impossibility of knowing  
what is next. 

Rule in me, my child, 
little me,
who once knew all this, 
and little Christ,
who once 
so naively and authoritatively 
wondered how his parents ever wondered 
where he was. 

I love you both, little ones. 
May you ever
grow your wisdom, stature and favor in me. 

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You can hear me read it here:
https://soundcloud.com/benwhitepoetry/the-child-in-their-midst-m4a