This is a beautiful Advent poem from a friend who lives a ver different life than I get to live. His words are rich are striking.

Nathan Ybanez, Sterling Correctional Facility

“Carpenter”

A carpenter is a healer.

Ragged bits of tree-flesh

Shaped, sanded, glued whole-

Wo0d stuck to a bloody wound,

So tightly grooves disappear.

You have to get right up close

To see the pain:

Grain of table,

Tremble of hand.

 

The carpenter takes these limbs,

Fresh from the slaughterhouse,

Knits them together and we

crawl right up inside.

Every home is Frankenstein

Beneath the paint and carpet.

 

Jesus was a carpenter;

He preferred a natural look,

Unafraid to show

Just where the nails went.

“Go ahead,” he said to Thomas

“Stick your finger right in”

“Go ahead, say I, pry

Me open with your questions:

Yes, my hands shake;

Yes, my voice quakes;

Yes, it happened long ago.

Time is the first Carpenter,

Healing while Scarring,

Leaving behind growth rings

Wrinkles and memories.

The wholes are always made of parts.

But wholes are greater — more glorious.

These pieces can still be redeemed.

These pieces can always be redeemed.