How I Have Survived

How I Have Survived
© Surazeus
2023 10 14

How I have survived turning of the Earth 
I cannot say except with song of rain 
when I lie buried in damp soil of fate, 
responding to words people say to me 
when I float breathless in raw wind of time 
as I open to cold light of spring dawn. 

When I emerge from shadow of the tent 
and walk with people moving toward the stage 
to join our camp meeting of song and prayer 
I feel my feet touching breast of the Earth 
for I am walking on Mother of Life 
whose spirit flows up from the rain-wet grass. 

Awake in darkness of my sunless grave 
before beginning and end of all time, 
I crawl from terror of eternal life 
and stand in bright illusion of the sun 
among one thousand people who cry out 
for salvation from the empty blue sky. 

Swept up in fervent prayer for holy grace 
to save our souls from wrenching pain of death, 
I sing for Jesus to come through gold clouds 
and fly down to me on seraphic wings 
to lift me high from sorrows of this world, 
but I fall back into my buzzing head. 

When they all vanish in the evening breeze, 
one thousand people who had prayed for grace, 
I stand alone in meadow of lost time, 
breathing air filled with pungent scent of flowers 
while butterflies land on my hair and hands, 
and I feel strange energy of wild lands. 

No longer can I feel where I begin 
as body of the Earth flows from my heart 
with sweetness of desire to transcend death 
and live forever in meadow of birds 
where I run laughing with arms wide outspread 
as I pretend I fly with Icarus. 

How I have survived process of decay 
when organic bodies sprout from wet Earth 
and search for treasure of the holy fruit 
hanging ripe from the ancient tree of knowledge 
I sing about while I strum vibrant strings 
to enchant the lost with visions of hope. 

Then men with guns surround our singing camp 
and shoot us in the heart with bitter hate 
so we all fall on tattered wings of faith 
where ripe bodies rot into hungry Earth 
so our voices that sang sweet as the moon 
vanish in cold silence of midnight wind.