Shall We Take the Darkness In?

Shall We Take the Darkness In?


(a response to the tragedy in Boston)



The darkness cuts into

our souls

like some switchblade

stuck into our gut

in the back alley

of doubt



Its hiddenness covers us

like a moldy blanket

cast over our heads-

the smell of it is

rank with crowded

grief and hate



We bleed and we gasp

for again

the darkness seems so

vast and deep and

we remember not

the light



And that is the victory

that must not be-

for light and life

are above and below

the lie that

is the darkness



We must tie off the wound

with torn rags

of love and compassion

and cast flowers over

the decay of the

wrong that wants to win



The darkness only wins if

we take it in-

Its desire is to have

our souls, but our

souls belong

to the light





The darkness cannot stand the flowers

that grow in the

ruin that becomes

the soil of new beginnings-

and

it cannot believe that

our scars are the

signs of our healing



The darkness cannot win

unless we take it in



Goodness is stronger

than evil



Jody Seymour

April 2013