Sunset Alert

a new prose poem

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

In our house, we have a rule.

When someone yells, “Sunset Alert!” you push the pan off the hot eye, turn from where you kneel folding laundry, put down the toys, close your laptop. You rise from the solitary steam of your bubble bath, and you waddle to the uninsulated porch in a wet bathrobe.

I’m not sure how it started or who first uttered the words at top volume. I don’t know how we became these wild, grateful, sky-watching people.

But as I drip bubbles onto the vinyl flooring we’d hope would pass for hardwood, in this house we can barely afford, as I observe my daisies turn their faces toward what they call “The God Show,” I realize this daily celestial bedtime routine is an invitation from my Creator to feel beloved, to add my voice to the chorus of those young and strong enough to exult in the sometimes glorious, always miraculous, monotony of life.

A lavender, cotton candy sky will always be my favorite emergency.

wild, grateful, sky-watching people

*As I develop the content for my new book, Art is How God Loves Us, I’m experimenting with shorter forms in my writing. Do you have prose poets that you love? I’d love to read more poetic prose, so put your favorite recs in the comments! TIA!