The bell is struck

The bell is struck

The butterfly delicately (at times, awkwardly)
extricates itself from the cocoon,

repeating constantly the Prayer of Repentance,
bidding its old form, old self goodbye.

The Prayer says - the bell is struck,
(the fight is over) the hammer unhanded.

Its reverberations will empty themselves
and recede irrevocably into the silence.

The Prayer is of clinging, half-forgotten
dreams of the old life, the old form

as the soul awakens from its aeons-deep slumber.
Repentance is always backward-looking.

The Prayer should be spoken face-forward,
midstride, tossed earnestly over the shoulder,

discarded and forgotten as we tramp
the new stretch of highway beneath our feet.

O child of God, the Prayer is a reminder
of who you were before the Awakener struck!