compounding interest

compounding interest 

I had imagined it 

built like a quilt,

a rectangle 

with square corners,

a middle sewn together 

like latticework,

and the joinery hidden underneath,

an altar upon which labor 

transformed into worship,

a psalm written to sing,

“Establish the works of our hands.”

To build an Instagram account 

with reposts and followers you don’t know

is like expecting to get satisfied 

from empty calories

and instead forming a distended belly,

fluff equals malnourishment

and a con man reaps what he sows,

judge not lest you be judged 

with how you judge,

but is a musician silent,

a truck driver still,

or a writer without words?

A good tree bears good fruit

and he who does not 

is cut down and thrown into the fire,

I knew then

if I planted perennials 

instead of annuals

that the results might not come now,

but something 

would be established;

to think that you’re gonna make it

before you made it

is a false thought,

a doubting notion

to require faith 

inorder to believe, 

Jesus look at me,

“Do you see the marks 

on these hands?”

The path that I’ve went down

has been remembered

by a trail of breadcrumbs,

but the memories are eaten up 

while we take a number

and wait in line

for this project to ripen with time,

one of the problems of life

is that sometimes a wolf 

dresses in sheep’s clothing,

and people come along

claiming to be for something,

but nothing is behind them,

a Hollywood front,

a faux set,

a human

with no being;

to think is to dream

and a day is for doing 

as a life is for building,

when people come to you

with the plans

that they haven’t yet

learned how to create

you know you’re onto something,

it wasn’t a coincidence for God’s son 

to be written in as a carpenter,

or the Biblical parables 

to concern farming,

because authenticity means planting seed 

that grows into something new each season,

a reinvestment of life’s interest

so that the work this day  

improves tomorrow’s balance, 

a sacrifice of apathy 

to believe everything you do 

builds into another thing.