gossc

seven times, the preacher said shall you be tested the water turns bitter and fills the communion cup (summer came softly but nobody noticed) the preacher said, there shall be no witness to judge who did right or evil but you shall be tested (the storm broke) you will need to choose between what you can see, the preacher said, and what must be trusted (the ground sodden collapses under your feet)

there's something between us— you the plains, the fields, the sky, me what i am— that is more than itself where roots and branches gather and strange calls echo in the early afternoon there is a place we cannot tread without trepidation and where memory meets prophesy and where i will one day go to die hence, i suppose, why we remain apart in our way why, i suppose, we must wander (not all such are lost, remember) (but i perhaps am)

do not fear but even then the light we let in can make us blind can disarm us and disown us can wander round the carpet-patterned halls and peer round doors and see us for what we say we are in night we were afraid but had no fear of darkness in night we were afraid that this moment would come where the rays clamber and gather and creep (while our eyes are closed we do not sleep) when the Sun's vicious eyes consume bringing decay out of desire bringing meaning out of dull stone bringing empty joy out of empty lives do not fear but even then the light we let in can make us seen can disarm us and disown us can climb the walls and wash out with the rain into drains and it does not like us, lover, it does not like us