Anthony Hanible

When The Ark Came Home

The road was dust and drumbeats

A trembling earth beneath our feet

As the Ark of the Holy One

Returned like sunrise after exile

David danced

Not as a king

But as a child

Who remembered

The first time God ever called his name

The cymbals crashed like open skies

The lyres shimmered like morning light

And every heartbeat in the crowd

Kept time with heaven’s footsteps

But holiness is never tame

Uzzah reached

And the world held its breath

A single touch

A single moment

And the fear of God

Fell heavy as thunder

Still the procession moved

Slow now

Like a people learning again

How close glory can come

Without consuming them.

And when the

Ark entered the city

David spun again

Unashamed

Unarmored

Undone

Because joy is its own kind of offering

Michal watched from the window

Her heart a closed door

Unable to understand

A love that leaps

Where dignity refuses to go.

But the king kept dancing,

Because

The presence of God

Is a song too wild

To stand still for.