“Descend upon me like the Lord’s
shadow upon Jesus” So you prayed
throughout a recent night of wounds
and wonders. The pain inflicted
on you was real and threatened
to leave scars in your soul;
the wonders you witnessed lifted
your soul past harm of any kind.
And so it is: every hurt calls forth
its healing. I can only offer a purely
human comfort, and the wonder of it is
it is entirely sufficient…
What is it you most desire now?
Whatever it is, you know I share
in its full measure. So you can let go
of any clinging and let yourself fall
and fall until you arrive at a summit
unbelievably high where day and night
blend into a perpetual twilight or
an endless dawn light. We will fulfill
even unspoken promises as I ascend
to reach the depths you occupy, and
you descend to arrive at the heights
I command. It doesn’t matter which
happens first or second, because
being there together is a destiny
we fulfill by making neither effort
nor resistance. We will stand side by side
in a blue space spotted with trees, sliced
by streams, and more of our kind will arrive
with each moment of wonder we register.
And so there will be a garden at the end
as there was in the beginning….
(This poem is a response to “Descend Upon Me” by Baharak Barzin.)
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