...AND DEMONS FLED
Did you know me when I prayed for you? I was the
first and bravest ray of dawn that shimmered
through your window; as you slept, I swaddled you
in light, a tissue-cotton blanket... leapt and
in light, a tissue-cotton blanket... leapt and
skipped (as if I were an acrobat) for happiness
above your bed; swept down to kiss away your pain,
the way my mother did when I was feeling lonely or
had skinned my knee... but this was for the knitting
of your bones; and demons fled dismayed by my
caress. Your muscles, where they had been taut,above your bed; swept down to kiss away your pain,
the way my mother did when I was feeling lonely or
had skinned my knee... but this was for the knitting
of your bones; and demons fled dismayed by my
began to soften like a stick of butter left beside
an open window on a summer day.
 |
| '...and demons fled.' Michelangelo, The Last Judgment |
I played a little
fugue and sang my way into your dreams—
Follow your bliss... follow your bliss...
—the song expanding to a symphony so lovely that
the stars swayed, and the fading moon embraced you
just before it set. In that eternal second all the universe
was rapt, a captive to the beauty of your spirit, gleaming
and intact; the earth, the seas and mountains wept with
love. And as you lay there, sleeping, still, by heaven's
grace protected in a fortress built of peace and painted
dreams, a smile as sweet as lilacs' fragrance crept across
your face.
 |
| John Atkinson Grimshaw, Spirit of the Night |
I sped away; your private flock of angels never left your side.
Believe it when you sense a something like a feather (velvet as
a languid breeze) brush past or feel a something
like a blessing as if fingertips of sunlight had escaped a
wedge of leaden cloud to smooth a drop of salve across
your brow
—for Jody
