By I have some bad news-
we’re all going to die
just like old plants
old towns
and old shoes
but sometimes old becomes new
like a new year
to alleviate the sting
of every inevitable fall
with every regenerating spring
a new law
accounting for the dirt and infirmity
staring us curtly in the face
a new judge
abounding in merits and mercy and grace
a new king
that has no ambitions of land or power
his only ambition to save
a new strength
that has broken the bands of death
freed us from the bitterness of its bondage
and the injustice of its arrest
a new reunion
when, free from these mortal morbidities
spirit and body reconvene
reformed, forging a new path toward divinity
a new joy
from a conscience once paralyzed
when, as thieves on the cross
and all seemed lost
he promised paradise
a new gratitude
for the most important of all days
when dawn’s rich sunlight unveiled the Crucifixion’s poverty
a week after palm Sunday
a new understanding
of that hybrid human-heavenly womb
and the irony that fullness
could only come through an empty tomb
a new testament
of what we got when the only begotten
gave everything he had to give
I have some good news-
we’re all going to live
