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Monday, January 5, 2015

The Baptism of Jesus


…at the moment Jesus was coming up out of the water
he saw heaven being torn apart…
       Mark 1: 10

A jagged gash in the sublunary world
heaven and earth ripped wide
A flood bleeding through the ragged wound

Judean cliffs of ancient stone
crumple and collapse upon
the panicked crowd gathered at the water’s edge

Great armored locusts
with claws and silver fangs
swarm in the billowing dust

A lion with blood-matted mane
leaps into the sky
and swallows the sun

There is no light
darkness comes
the final night

Then

An exhalation
sweeping wings descend
a dove – a voice

“You are my son
my only son
my beloved”

Jesus rises from the Jordan
wipes the water from his face
and sees the world

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