Come Light!

Rising fire
splits the black and grey
of a melancholy morn,
yet smothered by clouds
that refuse to yield.
Cool rivulets
of autumn air
stride across my skin,
thrusting and striking
at the humid heat,
desperate to claim
the annual battlefield.

Grey clouds
of dreams remembered
carry on the assault
begun in the Megiddo
of my sleeping mind,
where angels
both light and dark
thrust and struck
in prayer and curse,
desperate to claim
the daily battlefield.

Lingering shadows
of "things that are not"
press against the light
of "those that are",
the throes within
like the storm
of autumn breaking
around me.
They smother the mind,
and leave me gasping
like a wounded soldier
for the last breaths
that will come
before the setting
of the long night,
where angels of light or dark
will bless or curse
until the battlefield
is rolled up at last
like a scroll.

"Though an army
encamp against me,
my heart does not fear;
though war be waged
against me,
even then do I trust."
May the light
of "that which is"
break forth like the dawn
to drive far afield
the shadows grey,
those dreams of "what may be".
Wake me at last
from these waking dreams,
that my heart
be not distracted
from that which is set
before me,
and I may
"enjoy the Lord's goodness
in the land
of the living."

Come light!
Come truth!
Come reality!
Vanquish the darkness,
the lies,
the visions.
Bring peace
to this soldier,
weary from the onslaught.
Disperse these shadows
like the clouds
fleeing before the might
of that rising fire.

-------

Todd Russell
September 22, 2010