My Phoenix of Golgotha

Grady McMurtry

I looked at you and you were dead.

You lay supine, your well groomed head

Was cradled in the cushioned bier.

I looked at you, there was no fear

Within my choked and troubled heart

For you who were of me a part

Yet knew not of the grief I bore.

The life that swirled within your core

Is gone; and what there here remains

Will follow soon beyond the pains

Of life; the ecstasy we knew

Within the love life of we two

Is also gone, and yet, my Life,

My sweet, my lovely teasing wife

You lie and are to me as real

As when your hard pressed body's feel

Returned my yearning, hot desire

With your own joyous, fervent fire.

Your comely body I adored

And that was why I sought to hoard

Your beauty to myself alone

At first, and then you were my own

I knew and jealousy was gone;

Of hate I was no more a pawn

But gloried when men turned to see

That which I hold so close to me.

And now you're dead, and I am hurt;

I feed you to the senseless dirt.

Yet even as I know this thought

The tendrils of my soul are caught

To whip and writhe within a tone;

An essence that within you shone

Extends its light, caressing kiss

Across the ageless, black abyss.

The Tree of Life from which we grew

Reveals its heart to us, as you

Your love and benediction give;

Within my heart, again you live!

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