Brother

I can see this attempt to settle into your new life
Your premature act of packed bags
Full of items that carry your name
Into unfamiliar places of temporary comfort

I can see you waking up to foreign sounds, next to semi-familiar faces,
And taking early morning footsteps into your wilderness
I can see you entertaining the animals inside and around
Trying desperately to find permanency

All the while, in the only place that holds your name,
There lay black hole destruction
And an empty bedroom screaming
At those who tried their hardest

Even at this distance, I find a sadness that overwhelms me
Knowing that you’re searching and clawing and digging
For a re-definition to who you could be

While the eyes of the one I love seek to be elsewhere,
I cling to a hope that beats down the doors of a familiar anger
And a trust that looks out onto a long, long road

Perhaps this is because I know there will come a day,
As you’re waking up to the still-foreign sounds,
Your wilderness will be found to take no new names

And the road that I look out onto
Will show you in the distance
And, with hope as a guide,
I will take the steps forward

With my own mistakes in mind, I will look at you
Only to feel His grace through me
And into you