Faith Deceives The Eyes

Faith Deceives The Eyes
© Surazeus
2025 01 03

When Carol is young, walking in dim woods 
to school past the oak where white ravens wait, 
she believes she can hear the soft wind pray 
for beauty of hope in rustle of leaves 
when she peers through sieve of her trembling hands 
with awe at how sun drenches things with life. 

Though pain enters her heart in gloom of night, 
light of the sun rendering everything sharp 
washes it away with pure clarity 
that faith deceives the eyes to what is real, 
so on the road to school she stands stock-still 
and hears priests chanting in click of train wheels. 

When in late-afternoon gold window light 
she plays piano scales of consolation, 
she finds new clever ways to name her loss 
of innocence at every sudden death 
which reveals no truth we cannot accept 
that no one returns from some afterlife. 

Though cold darkness of winter presses down 
sorrow of roofs to squeeze spacious rooms lonely, 
her prayer for light to no one in the sky 
comforts her heart with shiver of despair 
at how the Christmas tree sings about faith 
which glitters snowflakes from the shattered moon. 

Each gleaming fragment of her mirror mind 
reflects face of the angel she loves most, 
so Carol prays for Sariel with gold eyes 
to visit her at night in her warm bed 
and fill her with epiphanies of love 
to relieve pain of knowing she will die. 

While carving letters on tablet of gold 
in celestial Academy of Scribes, 
Saron hears prayer of Carol down on Earth, 
so he dons silk robe with pair of swan wings, 
and beams down to her chilly moonlit room 
to give her apple from the Tree of Life. 

Placing sharp meat-carving knife in her hand, 
Sariel fills her heart with courage of faith 
so when her step-father sneaks in her room 
and slips in bed, she stabs him in the thigh, 
causing him to scream, then she calls police 
who drag him away and lock him in jail. 

Although she cannot pray with honest faith, 
Carol stops in woods by the raven oak, 
and sends sweet grateful prayer to Sariel 
who beams with joy, then whispers in the wind 
inspiring song of courage, so she walks 
boldly into school with freedom she earned.