Novena

I have prayed
for nine straight days
and even longer
on the way down
the steepest paths
paved with glass

My skin did all it could
and worked a shard
from the sole of my foot--
a diamond glittering
from the flesh
ready for harvest.

Fear not.

Pray for indifference
when the cruel sliver slips out

a drop of blood, red and sticky,
cleaning the wound that has opened
with each step toward freedom.

It is an exhausting relief
to breathe into this birth
knowing the pain
wasn't all in your imagination.

Repeat after me.

At My Expense

Grind the substance of your daily life
like grains of wheat between two rocks
and imagine what truths have been lost
like the chaff to the wind of too much
effort at finding the comfort
of a sweet companion.

This knowing is
like grinding teeth together
in a dream,
the slow exhale
into another pitiful death.

Know the sweating that soaks sheets
at two in the morning
that wakes you in heat
and freezes you as you turn your back
to the darkness
alone.

Know the darkness grinding the grains
of a fresh, youthful appearance
into dust--

into the lies and the false front
of a smile that charms your way
past the door of death
with the coins minted
at my expense.

Waking the Sleepers

Attune yourself
to the allure of morning
like you have slept soundly,
aroused by nothing in the night
that feels like pain
or pleasure at the brim
of falling into the abyss again

And again, just to broach the subject
of desire
stuck in your mind,
the breach birth that cannot be free
to rush out into the light of day,

the lamb bleating and popping up
into the fresh air,
lucid enough to notice
God sitting and waiting
to awaken the sleeping children.