The fire falls

The fire falls and burns behind eyes, within hands

Not long now until the chapter ends and the seal is opened?

And with Inequity unleashed, Justice’s heart will be devoured

O Mercy will weep at such a sight -

Sorrow carrying her young and burying them one by one

In the ancient earth

She will fall silent - no lament or praise to hail this new dawn

The Advent sign was not what we imagined -

Blackness yielding eternity from Time’s beating breast

It took such an age for this coming

Long-awaited, baited-breath, storm-stilled at last
The whirlwind reaped leaving landscapes bereft

Signs of life ripped up and just vanished

O Mercy, Sorrow and Justice

Bowed witnesses, foreheads kissing dust

O Love, to behold beauty born of a woman’s seed

And the perfection of completeness

No incantation accompanied this incarnation

Just silent-night wondering and a heartbeat buried so deep

In eternity bursting into smoke-filled air

With a cry to quench the fiercest of fires

And divide death’s domain in two forever

Sarah Larkin, Advent 2016 and 2017