Are you there?

You speak and I cannot hear you.
Yet again you speak; still I hear not.
And again, you speak; still yet I do not hear.
You reach not unto deep, only standing in shallows.

I weep at the quiet I hear, when you speak.
Head in hands, bowed low, I pray for you.
I cry again, deep calling unto deep.
You still yet hear not. Where are you?

I cry yet again, and nothing returns . . .
Then I whisper, "Are you there?"
Peering into darkness, I seek for any sign of you,
finding only faint images, fleeting through vapor.

My soul cries, fearing you are not.
Yet I see you, standing still, in shadow.
Hardly a dim glow, you shimmer not with life.
I turn again, unto life, hoping not, unto death.

                           *selah*
   --for the rest