The Kiss

The Kiss

The kiss was loaded

Filled with as much passion

As poison

Toxic and breathtaking

Cyanide to the soul

 

But isn’t that the beauty of serpents?

 Alluring us from our promised fidelity

Convincing us to leave

The only home we’ve known.

Promising Paradise

Delivering Nothing

But Paradise Lost

 

 Predictable, really

 When I stopped to look back

At my former home                 

Only its reflection mirrored

In the glint of angelic blades

remained

 

O’ Prodigal me

I took for a Paramour

a Serpent

 

Bruised and bloodied

By the Kiss that promised so much

But only left vapors  of

The  retreating Presence

Of the  Ru’ach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit)

The Kiss

Paltry and anemic now

In the light of  the loss

Of completeness - of Shalom

For a few seconds of

pleasure beneath a broad-leaf

tree

True Satisfaction

When my soul seems to be eating itself

Consuming its very marrow and fat

I look up and view Your sweet face

 

Cleft in twain, bloody and bruised

My heart lies at your feet

You put it together, again

Holding it,

Pumping Your own lifeblood into its valves

You offer my soul, the Peace of

Your Presence

You satisfy my hunger

With good things

So that my youth is renewed

Like the eagle’s

 

Whether feast or famine,

You remain present

Offering milk and wine

Without price

Your body the very

Bread of life

 

The gnawing on brittle bones

Trying to suck substance

From what will never

Satisfy 

I leave it behind,

And run hard after

You