The doorbell rings: there’s a person there.
A student worker on summer break
Selling magazines or books, siding or roof repair
Asphalt, concrete, slate, tiles or shake.
A neighbor with misdelivered mail
A man peddling a patio sail.

So much for my uninterrupted day
This person, I wonder, is this a job of choice?
So the knock on the door comes anyway
When no bell finds answer, the knock finds voice.
I'll open the door knowing I’ll be saying no
To whatever it is on offer saying I don’t know.

The thing is, I don’t understand,
I start to feel bad for the salespeople,
the student or the woman or the man;
consider the bills, the tuition, the people
Depending on something coming in
A failed penitential sort of sin.

A heart, not mine, a door, not me
Am I so busy with the bride
The groom I cannot see.
To the backyard garden I hide
No door or window to open up
My drink half-drunk in the plastic punch cup

The knocking persists. Who will it be?
If open I find there scoundrel stood
Or something else, strange and free
Peddlers of distraction, not so good
The idle idols, no to everyone,
But in the no, the enemy’s won.

I give in, yes, open door wide to see
Open to the rag man Christ the lamb
Open to waves and lands, new stars sea
Vanquish my stubborn rebel ram
Crushing head dead this selfish beast
Replaced by merry lamb’s wedding everfeast.

So goes the knocking of eternity’s door
Give away to others, hear the wounded lamb roar.