A superior baptism
I'm not the least bit nostalgic
for earlier times You broke the bread
of my body and dipped it
in Your blood red wine;
lit the plaited fuse, soaked the sponge in fire.
What a preposterous creature --
under the influence
of a faith so absolute it couldn't fit
inside my head, my mouth, my body;
a faith -- the ocean itself --
in which I swam and breathed.
I don't want to go back down
the way I came. The catch
is this -- faith without proof is, perhaps,
a thousand kisses stronger in the clenches,
a barrel full of heady wine; my tears
a superior baptism; my hand above the flame
the needed tempering for a greater joy.
To a green heart, You once gave grace --
jubilant wonder and faith unforced,
its tattered shell and remnants now,
dear and sacred as any proof I might bear.
O child of God, your Father gives what's necessary --
else, the least to the greatest faiths are all in vain.
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