Admiration
He laughed easily
and played harmless tricks on his friends
a prankster with a kind heart
kept you off balance
with how deeply he loved and shared himself
Touch me, dear friend
play a trick on me today
perhaps one that I can share with another
and all of us will have a good love laugh
from deep within
He welcomed the minor calamities
because they were merely thinly disguised
invitations to “the more”
like the time it rained all day during the
big baptismal gathering at the Jordan
or the time Peter sank like a rock on the water
the time when a little dog kept tugging at
his tunic as he was preaching
and the time he fell in the mud
on the way the temple
He was a man
an honest to goodness, fully human man
and I admire him
and I love him
for being himself