Why did you give us
such tender skin
and ask us
to carry fire?
We are consumed by our own smoldering,
hardly knowing
the power we carry
Dress the wounds
we have borne
and given
from our own burning.
Make us wise
to the fire in our bones,
that it may be
for warmth and light
in all our darkness.
- Jan L. Richardson, Night Visions: searching the shadows of advent and christmas
shake the dust 