Empty-Handed Charity

all you gathered under
working for an answer
holding what is out of hand

meekly struggling to awaken
bravely failing what's at stake and
drowning in a glass of stars

my heart is in the place of mourning
weeping blood upon your tombs
growing chill and wafting
sighs of love's perfume

pray, do see my verse is gentle
dear friendship is the banner hung
and heed with force this sober rhyme
before your lives are said and sung

for there is lighting in the cloud
and more than ready to be blunt
some thing most woeful will not hold
some thing more ancient will affront

behold The Devil now complacent
all his fiercest demons placed
insisting with their patient roots
upon the neutral soil

angels on their bellies
sparrows sunk in mud
here lies the wild we fathered
in purest impossible love

grinding our teeth to the beast
bones we all suckled by nature
like cannibal offspring nursing
when milk has ceased to run

is this the dawn of action
is this the fight or flight
has free-will made a motion
which faith cannot abide

for it would seem all things are blessed
and nothing simple could be wanting
that greed alone demands a test
and complicates exalting

people get lost just finding their place
words want to leave when unspoken
mind weaves a web to watch its own thoughts
silently creeps up and eats them

this is the fire we said we would tend
back when our souls were dark ovens
back in the night of interior life
when daylight was but an illusion

there we discovered a secret height
faint and yet present in blackest sight
tender to the breath's own breath
like the candle of a ghost

how it held us in suspension
saw us through the emptiness
left no doubt, no door, no question
blessed us with a full abyss

'till the cock disturbed our dream
by signaling the sunlight forth
and all was lost that was not seen
all subtleties quite blotted out