IT IS THE LIGHT

You woke up this morning with tears in your eyes,
A shy smile on your face but a knife in your back.
When the knife the came out, the pain set in;
And the memories you had chosen to leave forgotten… crept in.
The pain of the past: They spelt doom.
They hurt so much, so you banished them out to the gloom.
So the knife went back in and the pain disappeared.
And all was right in the world...or so it appeared.
For when you went to sleep at night and laid on your back,
The knife pierced itself deeper; it went into your heart.
You felt its sharp edges prick you, each way you turned.
It hurt you on either side,
So your rib cage gave way; your body formed a divide.
It caved in on itself; back arched over chest.
Like a dome in the roof of some old architectural structure at best.
You bent your back to protect your heart from the pain of the knife's hold.
You closed your eyes, it was too fearful to behold.
The sharp, searing stabs laying siege on your back, at the hands of a backstabber's back hand.
And deeper in your chest, your heart decided to hide.
Away from the glaring stares and judgment from behind.
You hid your heart in a cave of its own,
And covered it up with a blanket of woe
The darkness helped you. It shielded your fear.
It kept the past in the past and the present was here.
It was time to move on and forget things of old.
Forget the things that hurt; things no one should be told.
You couldn't deal with the judging stares, the lonesome glares, the piercing eyes.
That felt like they could strip you naked even from a thousand miles.
They couldn't know the truth, couldn't see you that way.
"It would ruin everything; everyone would turn away!"
Or so you thought. So you told yourself day after day.
Choosing to follow your own wisdom and ignoring what everyone else had to say.
It didn't matter if it was the word of God.
His view didn't even come third in line after you'd listened to your thoughts.
So you dug deeper into yourself and carved a hole in your chest.
It grew on you and became part of your very soul; your essence.
The larger it grew, the darker it became.
Until your heart was covered with a cloak of darkness, despair and shame.
Caved in on itself, it couldn't breathe.
While the knife remained stuck in your back, sucking all the air your heart needed to live.
You became drawn, taken, spent.
Your body grew weak and shriveled.
The life drawn out of you; you looked dead.
You walked around with a bent back, chest caved in.
No one could see, only your eyes could tell of your misery.
You kept your pain well hidden from the judgment of the world.
But it ate you up inside and made you an abomination to the earth.
Fear kept you captive and caused you to hide in shame.
You let the darkness consume you; you walked around with the pain.
You told yourself it was better that way, better than anyone finding out.
You let your denial get the best of you and it controlled you within and without.
Your heart caved in and the darkness consumed you.
It surrounded you like a cloak at night. In the day, it was the shadow that pursued you.
The darkness became part of you, it controlled you.
You let it take over and it owned you.
And soon the weapon you had created to protect you, fought against you.
It formed a mind of its own and it tried to use you.
And when the darkness had taken over, a new kind of presence began to hover.
Subtly at first; it took some time for you to notice it.
For you saw the light before you heard it:
Felt its essence creep up on you before you sensed it
You didn't know what it was but you knew it was different.
It made the hurt feel easier, made the pain leave with a new scent.
But you were afraid to let it all in for it exposed you.
It made you feel naked, weak, it tried to control you.
It threatened to tear apart the shield you had built over your heart all these years.
To free the things you had been fighting to keep concealed; things that had made you shed tears.
You couldn't let it. You couldn't give in.
The fear of what might happen overwhelmed you,
And so you fought against it with all your strength and will.
But it wouldn't let you go, it fought back.
It knew it couldn't let you take over, not this time.
This was the time to get back on track.
For light travels faster than the speed of sound
So you saw it before you heard it the second time around.
You saw the light before you heard His voice.
It was the tiniest spark at first but it came with a choice.
To either pry open the cave you had built over your heart,
Let the light come in and tear the cave walls apart.
Or to let the darkness consume you and own you and drag you to the deepest depths of despair that would eventually destroy you.
Unsure; Afraid, you made a decision.
And with careful precision, drew the dagger out of its incision.
The knife in your back came out and you waited for the pain to set in.
But the silence that followed was deafening.
Instead, the light that flowed was illuminating.
It came in through the hole the knife had made in your back.
And wistfully, carefully it seeped right through the cracks.
And piece by piece the fragments of that cave fell.
The walls of your heart began to breathe and you felt well.
The pain was there but it was distant, a flicker.
And every moment the pain came stronger,
The light shone brighter and quicker.
Arched back bent over chest like a dome in the roof of some ancient architectural structure,
Was bent backwards and straightened out like it was meant to be without even so much as a fracture.
The light travelled through your heart, around your chest, healing and strengthening.
It burst forth from every corner of your being,
Like the streaks, sparks and rays of lightning.
Bringing out from your very being,
The inner power and might you had been receiving,
All these years your heart had been locked up but you had never been believing.
For the light shines, within and without, incomprehensible.
And the darkness remains spellbound, dumbfounded; for the light is unfathomable.
The light travels faster than the speed of sound,
So you saw it before you heard it.
You saw it and heard it,
But before you saw it and heard it,
You felt it.
You felt its essence,
You saw its presence
And its presence was as bright as the fluorescence.
Brighter still than anything luminescent.
For IT IS THE LIGHT, and it is magnificent.