Daniel took a walk everyday because playing in his room became lonely.
He wove from the east end of town to the south,
From the north end of town to the west,
Wearing blue jeans in the summer
Because his only shorts were too large and had no pockets,
And in shorts, the socks he wore scrunched up and down his calves
And his knees felt uncomfortably exposed.
Daniel never noticed the heat, and he never worried about a sunburn.
When Daniel passed the church his family attended,
He always stopped to say hello like he was visiting a friend’s house
Because that is where God lived.
If the doors were unlocked, which they usually were,
He drank for a while from the water fountain inside,
which was the third coldest in town.
Daniel believed in Jesus because he liked having somebody to talk to.
Daniel swam alone at the pool. Daniel read alone at the library.
In the kid’s section, tucked against the back wall,
Daniel reread the childhood books that his mother donated.
On a table near the library’s enormous window,
Daniel flipped through heavy books of maps
And with a journal beside him for taking notes,
Daniel planned how to walk from one continent to another.
His parents and neighbors never wondered where he was,
Though townspeople often asked, “Why do you walk around? Where you going?”
Daniel wasn’t given money for ice cream.
If it started to rain, he didn’t call home for a ride.
Daniel waved hello to everyone he saw, and fewer people waved back than he expected.
A number of them would say that he came around too often, and ask
Why wasn’t he somewhere else?
In the quiet of his bedroom,
Daniel played with his action figures and couldn’t bother anybody.
“The time has come to die!” the hero warned the villain as they battled on his carpet.
“Are you talking to yourself in there?” his mother asked from the other side of the door.
“Are you talking to yourself, Daniel?” the librarian asked when he tried to tell himself a story.
Daniel once heard his Sunday school teacher ask another mother,
“Isn’t it crazy to talk to yourself?”
“I’m not sure,” the woman had answered.
“Maybe it’s okay as long as you don’t answer yourself back.”
Daniel enjoyed doing the voices for his toys, especially the bad guys.
Daniel set his figures on the bookshelf in their action poses
And thought it best not to touch them for a while.
Daniel rounded every corner and explored every block in town.
On the days when he didn’t feel like being looked at, Daniel knew which parks were empty.
On the days when the breeze was too perfect and the leaves hung so green
that it became distracting,
Daniel knew a bench at the lake where no one else sat.
The other kids played in groups, like always.
A couple of them laughed around the picnic table.
A circle of them traded cards beneath the slide.
There was a group of children playing tag on the grassy hill,
And two more were always fishing on the water.
Daniel knew not to interrupt any of them, and none of the groups interrupted each other.
On nice days, he smiled when they smiled.
On rougher days, he felt lonely watching everyone else have fun.
When Daniel passed the Church, he asked Jesus to come with him for the rest of the day
Like picking up a friend at a friend’s house.
Daniel talked to Jesus about what he saw on the street,
About the things he read and about the places he wanted to visit.
If something interesting happened, like finding a yo-yo on the sidewalk
Or passing a beautiful car or seeing a man walking his horse into town,
Daniel thanked Jesus for giving the day a surprise.
Daniel wore the same shirt to church every Sunday.
His mother never bought him new button-ups, but waited for his aunt’s family
To mail his older cousin’s hand-me-downs once a year, which never fit.
Daniel’s mother noted that they looked “quite handsome” on him.
Daniel only had the one pair of sneakers to wear,
Which the congregation stared at instead of his shirt.
When the elders called the congregation to rise,
Daniel huddled on the floor between the pews.
He carefully hid his head from the pastor. He set the hymnal in his lap like a small desk.
On the weekly program, Daniel drew tiny mountains and strong, old trees
And a footpath that stretched far out of the picture.
On that winding road, he drew a fully grown version
Of the action figure he wished he could be
With another shape that was Jesus walking beside him.
© 2019
The Favoring Wind 