Picture Hunting

In the early snowfalls of this Missouri winter, adventurous photographs started their migration. I caught them flying north with the geese, hiding beneath frost-laden branches, and skipping across the sun-reflected snow crystals. I ran to my closet, dressed in proper excursion attire, and retrieved my butterfly net.
A perfect day for picture hunting.

This is what I caught:

Pictures Painting Words

.

Head-butt the wind,
Pole-vault the horizon,
Polish your destiny to reflect His glory.

Race the moonrise,
Drop-kick a thundercloud,
Poach your beliefs in the ocean and swallow them whole.

Scrub your skin with snowflakes,
Spit in a volcano's eye,
Nock an arrow and shoot the shadows beneath the topsoil.

Drive a herd of tidal waves,
Startle a falling raindrop,
Imitate a paw-print and then follow it home.

I can't explain how my mind's-eye works. To the reader, my words come first and slingshot pictures into the imagination. To me, my mental pictures paint the words and snail-mail them to ink-and-pen. What is understandable to me often comes out in mystery-form on paper...such as the above "poem" (or is it prose?).
Over the course of several weeks, phrases like "pole-vault the horizon" and "poach your beliefs in the ocean" tiptoed into my head, carrying with them a substance far too jumbled to explain. Yet in the photo-gallery of my mind, their meanings sit politely around a tea-table, organized and clear as a July sky. Someday I'll explain every seemingly-silly phrase, but for now I'll file them in what looks like the order of poetry and smile, knowing that if I dare to imitate a paw-print, my destiny will take the next polished step toward Matthew 5:16.

"Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."