Guardian of the Light
Guardian of the Light
I'm not afraid, wanderer with your temple scorched by ash, that you'll steal the light from my chest,
I've hidden it in the bell inside me, under the ember still burning from my last broken shackle,
I carry it like a wound that never heals, but only grows deeper and more upright,
a flame no shadow can put out, however hungry and however corrupt it grows.
From the weeping rib I gather white masts, one for every shattered ray of light,
and I plant them, like crosses of salt, in the seas of blood that no longer carry anyone;
that way the horizon stays awake, even if the flood should come to carry me off,
I'll still keep the small boat of my soul afloat, above the last dead string.
I won't leave my light in hands of stone, prey to the ravenous mouths of hungry dark,
I wall it into old towers, into cold hearths, under psalms of fire and a seal of thought;
and the gentle oil, veined with amber like a burning dusk,
I keep in candles of sun, myrrh carried by the last dying psalmist.
And should the madmen come to dig up the treasures hidden in the silent universe's depths,
I'll lay scales of lightning over their eyelids, so their dream is wasted, lost,
I'll raise seraphim out of the reverse side, torn from the flesh of night,
to stand guard at the place where once my light came down and made itself seen.
I know the seed sleeps in a cup hidden in a cave, under granite and ancient smoke,
from it rise, when worlds collapse, forests of sky with angels lost and untroubled;
I'll keep watch through the old return, the key hidden in the bone of a crooked wall,
standing guard over my inheritance, with cold stars kept in sentry boxes, under a foreign sky.
But when the sick century falls upon the world, its forehead shattered into dust and wind,
from the nameless reserves of light I will stitch the torn creation back onto the earth;
and when, at last, out of dust and eclipses, you return to ask after the sacred wealth,
you'll find the light multiplied in ellipses, roots in the sky and flowers deep in the ground.
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