For all those whose cruciformity brings light to dark places, hope to bleak places and promise where there is none. God sees.

 

Dark and insistent the vultures come,

descending on unsuspecting lives.

Ripping and tearing this salty flesh,

distraught, disturbed, disjointed,

carrion fuel, bespattered spiritual spoil.

 

Stand your ground, oh lovers of day.

Plant the scarecrows of virtue,

your unmoving brokenness,

your gleaming dark,

your song of voiceless vagabonds.

 

Though preyed upon, yield not

your hidden beauty, prayed upon

with stubbornly sanguine faith.

Though experience tells you to run,

love bids you stay.

 

As blood is bridge built from richest vein,

so their sightlessness becomes our sight.

As the corners of simple garments

heal deep wounds and clothe

the healer, so the faceless ones become

in an instant –

the smile of God.