easter vigil

my lent has been forty days

a month and a week or so

without the things i run to

when i want to run away

he spent 33 years away

from the glories of heaven

willing to be confined in flesh

limited for the sake of love

he was human, as i am human

but God, as i am never

not half and half, he

but fully and fully the two

the Word Incarnate:

the Word made words

who breathed and sang

slept and sorrowed

hungered, thirsted

ran, danced, laughed, wept —

he was real, touchable, woundable

but in everything perfect

completely obedient in humility

humbly obedient to death unimaginable

mangled like an animal

white bone peering through rented flesh

pinned as an object of revilement

even then he was in control

even then could blast

his rebukers and slay

his betrayer

but even then, obedient

he stayed, hanging, gasping

gazing fully upon the wrath

of God most glorious

the holy consuming fire

he who was perfect became

sin for us, he the blameless

the glorious, became

a curse, despised, rejected

smitten of God

but obedient to the point of death

he freely gave his life

the lamb under God’s knife.

in him i died, all of mine corrupted

transformed, translated

in him i live, all of his mine

all of me, his.