1.
Sanctuary
of my bones
weary, worn,
paper-thin,
the throbbing
ache within
my soul.
Purify
my heart,
Your magnificence
within me.
Let my beating heart
beat forward,
into the golden sky,
like the beating
of the eagle’s wings.
2.
One night
there was this sunset.
And the sky glowed
so brightly,
like the tangy,
sweet
wedge of a tangerine—
and it devolved, trickled,
into rouge-pink petal
silk, lavender
velvet, Christening the sun
as it went down
beneath the
weightless wonder
of the clouds,
edges on fire
by enormous candlelight.
The incandescent heartbeat,
created for joy’s sake.
3.
And in due time
the flowers are made
beautiful. Though once
they were shriveled seeds,
life burst forth through the dirt.
And the wind will sweep away
the fiery leaves of autumn
branches sinking under the weighted
blanket of snow.
In due time
the robin will fly
and the baby will crawl,
and then run,
sprinting toward all
that will be.
4.
When Joy came
it was morning;
the sun
lapped up the dew
and shook off the restless,
waking night.
Weeping slipped out
quietly, and defeated—
but Joy blazed bright
and smelled
like coffee, and pancakes.
It sounded like
a dog’s happy tapping paws
clicking on a wood floor,
the tail thumping on its drum—
the table leg.
Weeping tarried for a moment
But in the morning,
night’s empty silence
turned to Joy’s unceasing praise.