Lazarus

LAZARUS

Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to come back.

If they had I would have flat out refused.
Why would I want to trade peaceful bliss,
eternity in the presence of Grace,
for a decrepit meat-sack of ills and pain?

I was light; soft cloud-breeze light, made of light,
and before I could beg to stay, I was back -
housed in three dimensions, slowed to a crawl,
with an inescapable expiration date

until which I was trapped here.

How could I then refuse, ungrateful cur,
when I had instantly become both icon and cause,
when He who had blessed me so was standing there,
smiling beatifically with pure love, when my loved ones sang
and multitudes cheered with the fervor of the converted?

So I did as was expected of me, as I had been raised to do,
I fell into old habits of fealty and service.

But for a moment, just one shining moment,
I could remember with the sharpness of summer skies
what I had lost, what had been taken from me,
and despite the good intentions of His acts
and the loving embrace of my family’s joy,
there was nothing I was capable of doing,
except yearning to return.

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Shed with DVerse Poets for Open Link Night.






©2014 Christopher Reilley

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