~ by Avellina Balestri
Circle etched in the desert’s drought.
Heart pulled out and flesh subdued.
Love of God that tears the soul.
Apples offered, bloodstain red.
Who will sever evil’s chain
that binds each one unto the next,
borne within, our nature’s curse?
The echo of a serpent’s tongue
bare-breasted, or a lion’s roar
pride-praising, or aloneness,
and none will hold Your hand…
Who will cast the sinless stone?
Only those whose eyes are blind.
Who will castigate the world
for the Kingdom of the Soul?
How on earth shall Kingdom come?
You tremble at your miracles,
as life restores the rotting limbs;
you shudder as the voices speak
that You are Son of Man, and God,
and those who see You see His Face.
Does God bid peace, or bid He war?
The blood is running down Your palms.
Does He bid heart, or bid He ax?
The signs come little at a time…
The temple tables spill their coins
in blood that flows down temple walls,
and dogs lick at the bleeding corpse
of old laws, being born anew.
Our hearts are readied now for more,
and God is not an Israelite.
But You presume too much, they say;
are You the saint of blasphemy?
What is the way to cure the soul,
bring Man unto the wedding feast?
To die! Yes, You must die…
Of Your own choice, of Your own will;
outstretched, and flogged, and spat upon,
You must, in all things, empty dry.
Die to self, and all it means.
Die to all that might have been.
But what’s this flame that beckons?
The flame of many voices bound
that’s come unto the end,
in angel’s form, with golden hair
that hums in heart and strikes in ax,
then pulls the nails from open wounds.
That offers life and love;
a woman’s touch, and children born.
That offers, not the grandest things,
but simple things of hearth and home.
Is it too much for flesh and bone
to bear this curse alone?
Die like men, the voice betrays;
Die, and watch the world consumed!
In fire, in fury, die.
No… struggle on.
Oh, Father, hear me…
make a Feast…
I am the Lamb
slain from the First.
I will die and rise again.
I will be the Messiah,
in thorn-bush crowned,
naked and defiled,
and still I will smile and cry
IT IS ACCOMPLISHED!