i wrote this at cornerstone

So i wrote an intro for this, then erased it because for some reason i feel like it needs to be left unexplained. So there you have it.









He told me

salvation is not seamless.
It is sure, but not without the grit of the fight

as we struggle through the husk
as we pin down blessings with our naked teeth

for that home-made, hand-tackled joy
that blooms out of our throats

into something we can sing
together; a tribe of tattered saints.

At least,

i am no icon:
stilted in the smoke and hollow plaster,
nothing but holiness clenched under the bright of brow.

Actually,

i trudge my way into the kingdom
most of the time.

i skin my knees
on the way into glory

so that my golden hat was scraped off long before,
somewhere in the thickets of my flaw,

and my hands are raw with the coming.