the letter came as expected
just unexpectedly the contents not what I’d hoped
it’s made me see what the world must contend with
while I here have been hiding away in my safety naivety
I will not read the lines over and over
and over absorb them through the skin of my fingertips
they’ve settled into my heart as it is
which is I guess where they’d been headed all along
the cracking of flesh to expose the soul’s blood
in order to live the bottom line of a life scraped raw footprints tatter the path just behind
this has been asked for after all despite the look of the response otherwise pain always accompanies the hope
so that the shine most definitely tends toward a tarnish don’t let the fools tell you otherwise
though their intention is right it is worth it
that’s the root
the response has broken open the truth
spreading the filigrees of faith across the room muddied marks splashed against the walls
this may be the only way we can live this world into life
again I grasp the truth again I halt all reasoning away again I enfold the things in my hands towards a hope to hold on
as this world gasps for the breath we’ve starved it of I want to hold it too with my handfuls
of faith