Discernment

I saw the upright, the one with wolfish eyes
hungering behind a window.

“Let the Lord overtake,” she said,
“him who walks securely in pretense.

For my eyes have seen the secret moments,
the hidden glances, pauses; the tics of his eyebrows.

Look—I have collected the broken lines of his speech.
I have heard his quiet thoughts.

Deliver him, I pray,
to my insight’s prediction, unaided, unabated”

Gnawing her hands, her discernment was whetted.
And I, nibbling, stopped and looked away.

Amanda Ryan

Amanda Ryan

Amanda Ryan earned an M.A. from New Saint Andrews College and bachelor’s degrees from U.C. Davis. She is a freelance writer, and teaches high school for Logos Online School. She lives in Idaho with he