Purgatorio

The letter of law condemned, Let the Word enfleshed bring redemption, My guide and I could now see, Dancing curtains of luminescence, As we started our ascent, Climbing from perdition to penance, This locus of light and shade, Tells of hands that wind the springs of time, Celestial harmony, Counterpoint of our woeful journey, A chance to listen, to learn, The childlike heart deeper knows its love, My guide sustained by virtue, So far as it alone could progress, Even his words of renown, Fall short of the leap that is required, Knowing his jurisdiction, Must acquiesce to that of my muse, Ascending the fallen rocks, Like fish fighting the river’s torrent, Praying for New Jerusalem, To send its envoys as we draw near, Struggle to straighten my back, As the links I forged are purged, unchained, There were no marks to follow, But the passage trodden and sanguine, First we heard voices only, And were envisaged as we lent ear, Then their eyes shown upon us, As the first warmth of the rising sun, Buried by their burning coals, I shrank at the weight of their glory, Leaning on my companion, While sight slowly returned to my eyes, Born to lead was he that spoke, The fair mind that carried my faint heart, Stumbling over her words, Discolored and deformed by gossip, Empathetic eyes enjoining, Weeping forth a baptism unseen, A light shines without warning, Voice of the sacrifice thundering, Each of us sensing the pull, The opaque dominion obsolete, My dereliction relieved, Standing where only the eagle dared, In parting Virgil taught me, The humbling way of the servant, Breaking trail I led the line, Bouldering through chasms to the spine, Those who followed stopped to gaze, At the crimson flames as I passed through, Striding atop the wave’s crest, Came the words of one who calmed the storm, Borne upon the silent wind, The touch of hands upon my tired eyes, It was then that I noticed, The footsteps of the love I thought lost, Her train following in file, The martyred witnesses making way, Mesmerized thought held enslaved, I was searching, grasping for guidance, Then said she, “now cease to strive”, As she showed me past the edge of time, To the realm of the Helmsman, Keeper of compass and covenant