Oak Leaf 


A poor outline of parched lips.
A blunt spearhead, blood-rusty and brittle with age,
long past its ripeness to pierce someone’s side.
The slender fragment of an old map
printed with the topography 
of a far, famine-smitten country,
one ancient riverbed running its length 
with branching, thread-veined tributaries dry,
brownish-red runnels brittle, blocked
with the petrified dust of sap.

It still retained a dull luster,
embalmed—the glaze of death
over the lineaments of surface,
the underbelly grainy,
lacking in the gift to grasp light.

Stem like a heart, darkened—
a channel drained and withered,
choked with plaque.
Blackish spots like tumors blossoming,
furthering its flowering into decay.

In my fist I grind it,
rubbing the pieces between my fingers,
sifting the chaff, 
culling the grist
before scattering it
as if seeds to be sown
over the thistle-rich earth.



*Oak Leaf was originally published in Christianity and Literature, Volume 55:3, Spring 2006.  The kind of oak leaf considered in this poem was from a Southern Live Oak.





Hints

There were those moments as a child, 
when epic dreams
beyond the borders of sight—
the margins of the world—were revealed,
offering an elusive glimpse,
a vague vision, like that time 
considering hickory smoke
threading from a dark, winter wood,
rising, dissolving
into the infinity
of a blue-gray evening.
Or, after the fresh of fallen snow, 
all alone in the starry silence 
of early morning,
finding myself wandering 
amidst the silvery-blue shadows
of smooth, softly glittering hills.
Once, it had emerged
upon entrance into a room 
flickering with orange firelight
and spiced with cider, laughter,
the wonder of each interval 
a sliver of light 
through a crack in the door,
flaring for a timeless instant,
unveiling a glimpse
into the dark of distance—
a whisper of splendor and mystery—
those moments as so many hints 
into the spaciousness
of the everlasting.



*Hints was originally published in Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal, Volume 3, Winter 2009.


Biography:
Scott Schuleit is the Associate Pastor at North Palm Baptist Church. He received the M.A. in
Christianity and Culture from Knox Theological Seminary. His non-fiction has been published in
several print and non-print publications, including: Tabletalk, Reformed Perspectives Magazine,
Monergism.com, The Gospel Coalition, and Modern Reformation. His poems have appeared in
various publications, including: The Penwood Review, Christianity and Literature, and Critique.
He is the author of one book entitled: A Pernicious Correspondence: Letters from a Devil. He
lives in Miramar, Florida, and enjoys preaching, the arts, theology, good conversation, and
spending time with his dear wife Christina.