Your Radiance

 

Your radiance outshines the earth.

Wormy loam, composted dahlia,

moldering racoon corpse,
newborn orphan.

All have your face.

Your radiance outshines the mind.

No thought contains you.

Every desire has your freckles.

Marveling at your body,

the archangel and the cow

gaze with one and the same eye.

Your foolish compassion
mocks every law.

No scripture contains you.

When you glance at me

there is no right or wrong.

I see you in the one I despise,
proving that Jesus
is not a plastic flower.

Your flesh is made of silence.
No mirror contains your
darkness.

Are you a cauldron
of molten paradox?

I keep you gold and warm
near my heart

so you don't congeal into
opposites.

When you burst out of my
center,
my center is everywhere.

The ones I feel sorry for
are those who still think
this world of pain and beauty
has a purpose.

They haven't tasted
a single spoonful
of your dust.

Your salt in their tears.
They are still sober.



Art by Andrew Wyeth

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