Requiem

Weary captive, arise, wrecked and wounded
Hemmed inside a hidden hold
These roaming shoulders broke from a pain heavy enough to disappear into
And when the bitter cold cut away memories of who I once was
I forgot how to believe

It's easy to get lost in the night
To lose the language of redemption across the wild wilderness of white I've wandered into
But no matter where I go
To the mountains and rivers and over blankets of snow covering spring's meadow
The past keeps pulling at my sleeve, weeping
Ruby-eyed and heavy-breathed
This is a pain even his promises can't reach

Oh my love
I pray you'll remember in December who I once was
And not what I became

Still searching
Stumbling down mountains forested by snow-shrouded spruce
Still staggering
Every cough caught with color-drained hands
Cold-boned and numb, chest emptied by the burn of frozen breath
Still shaking
These shoulders aching
My soul still sobbing, sweet Savior
I'm so sorry for the sorrow I've sent into the spirits of those I love
Please carry me home
Then a band of clouds begins bubbling just beyond the milky mountaintop before paling into the pink bloom of morning
Purple threads stitching the broken night
Oh beloved
The breadth of your echoed brilliance leaves me gasping
Low and beholding
But you've spent your splendor on a stricken man
Sick and barely breathing
Because every beauty burdened by the war raging inside my bones
Breaks

Slantwise and in sheets
The snowfall quickens as fog thickens over a languished land littered with whispers and wonders as I wander deeper into a strange cold smoothing over my skin
I stumble with shock, falling
The cold stinging but sweetly singing as it crushes every mountain and empties every river and removes the shame from my shoulders and spins it into salvation
Suffocating
Struggling with this surrender
But sweet Savior
Despite my fight
My every hope
Though faint and few
Rest inside the promise of you

My son
Stubborn and strong
Rise before your sorrow and watch the suffering melt into something new