Resurrection

BEACH, GRAND HAVEN, MICHIGAN
October 1989

Dear God
I speak to you from the darkness
Of the unseen and the undesirable
The hidden and unwanted
Because it was you who taught me
To seek you first where no one dares to look
To roll away rocks and find you there
In the world of creatures who flourish
Under the burden of stones

You told me there was splendor
In the worms and the millipedes
In the slug devouring a strawberry
In the lichens on the dead stump of a tree
And in all that scurries beneath its rotting bark.
It is these you said
The despised the unlovely the unthanked
Who restore the world
And their beauty is my own

As time gets shorter
Allow me to sink into the soil
To push tunnels into the night
And break apart the husks of the dead
Without fear
To thrive while I wait until you begin
To repair and to nurture the silent roots
Now secret but ready to grow
Amen