Corpus Christi

I'm tearing through the mist - that goddamned veil that's blocking my way - smothering me - you tore it

   It is my flesh

I'm sorry

   I was damned by god - damned by god the father - prepared for burial by my mother - I went to hell and freed the captives there - I'm the veil - I'm torn so you can enter me - in me - through me - one in me

Like reason - she was torn too, so we wouldn't have to be

   Yes. I'm the logos - the word - that was with god in the beginning

      and was god

    Then flesh and blood

and then torn

      and then lifted up

living and flowing

   like a river


broken like bread

      from wheat

   in the soil and dirt

your head hung down like ripe wheat

   broken for bread, hungry child

your skin torn for the wine

   a broken, ripped, torn grape

like every grape of wine?

   and every orange whose skin is ripped

and every apple that gives its life?

   every seed that falls

every bud?

   and every bloom

What about the branch? The vine? Every pruned, cut, hacked hedge?

   Every bulb, withered leaves on top, cold body in the ground

Sweet sap, arrested in the oak's veins?

   Like the rains thickened to snow, sweetheart

      and even the clouds are like glass

   and then they melt

and your blood pours again

   and quenches your thirst

I'm quenched, but I'm always thirsty

   I'm at your lips, child

you taste very good

   drink deeply, little one - drink deeply from my breast - my earth - my body, and feel refreshed by my kiss, the sky - her wind and dewy breath on your face

amen

   my womb is past

and I'm born

   your own teeth will tear the skin of the grape now, and crush the wheat seed's back

      for even they must die

so I can live

   and in your turn, give life

      amen