Life of Rachel

The shadows under your eyes
tell me the words you won’t speak:
I know you’ve been up all night,
and that’s why you can’t look at me.

Look at you; you’re haunted:
Your waking life shattered by your dreams.
Your body tells the story;
Your chest collapsed in, heart shielded.

When I’m loving you, you hear his voice too.
Your mind is convoluted and crowded
Shifting spaces, shouting whispers
Saying things that no one else hears

—It makes you feel alone and cold
Uncovered by your secrets, closed in
By the walls you built to keep the choices
From your past locked up in boxes—

My hands grip the chambers of your heart;
I want to tear down these walls and
Hold you completely together
Lovely, I don’t want to leave you alone.

You’ve shouted all of the reasons and searched for all of the answers with all of your equations;
The sum of your decisions—you thought you found a reason and that would make you free—

Carry on, carry on, you beautiful wandering brain.

When you’ve finally grown weary of the gray,
I will close in the space between us and say
The words that only we have shared.

I will make you understand; your nightmares will be a million light years away, the fog will lift;
You will see the stars for what they are
And you and me, we will be singing stanzas.

Release your cloak of heaviness, like dawn sheds the dark, and I will gift you a garment of praise.

I know you’ve been tormented, I see it in the sheets of music that you’ve written.

He’s inked the pages with sticky prints to set smudges on a masterpiece that I have composed with my own fingers, So I will hunt him—but first, retreat to me. I’m Holy Spirit, let me love you.

Open your arms up to the sky and kiss my face;
Embrace me, I’m not angry:

I’m hungry to cover—
To undo what cannot be undone, to draw a river where there had not been one before:

Remember me. My soul is bound to your own
I am clean, I will clear you from all of the fears:
You’ve battled isolated in the bitter cold:
We’ll brave this together, I’ll be your shelter.

I’ll guard you from all of the wind and the pain,
I will restore your voice and give you a new name;

I will scrub away every single trace.

Let me in;

Let me make you as those who dream.

December 11 2021