Hunter-Killer

O beloved Daughter, hunter, killer
I have been doomed since my first glimpse of you
You, the Lord’s anointed, appointed gun
Born to end the life I won’t surrender.

You are not the first He sent to hunt me
Through the wilderness I grew to hide in
Long have I run, naked on bleeding feet
From Him who walks in the cool of the day

But I heard Him wind his hunting horn,
And set his killer angel on my track
And the weapon He has formed against me
Will not fail to find its mark this time.

Though I keep to the rock that holds no trace
And wade the river that will hold no scent,
And travel by the dark of night to lands
Where nobody can tell me what to do

Still dawn finds you breaking the horizon,
On my back I feel your crosshairs find me
And you pierce this deserter’s heart, crying
Out, the echo of the rifle’s report.

You rise up like a river in the spring
And my levees cannot contain your flood
You fill the minutes of my life and drown
These lungs that sang out only of my self.

What I thought was strength is bleeding out
What I thought was joy is ebbing away
What I thought was life is leaving me now
And I rise and discover what comes next.

Good Friday 2014

It was the day of the hammer
The day of the nail
It was the day of the storm
And of the earthquake

For how could the earth
Not shudder and crack
With the blood of its maker
Spilled upon it?

And we huddled in our homes
Beneath the bruise-black sky
And waited for creation
To burn us for blasphemy

And the earth did open
Beneath we, the accursed
But out of the depths
Came not fire, or water

But our beloved, who were dead
Now quickened,
And laughing
And running to embrace us.