Stumbling back to Bethlehem

Will this year be different?
When we rise
on Easter morning,
will the tomb
at last
be empty?
Will all the things
that deaden our lives --
the hate, the anger,
brutality and scorn;
acquisition and control,
everything that augments
our separation from each other
and from You --
will all those chains
that weigh down the cross
be dissolved, and released?
Will there -- at last -- be light?
Or will we have to sigh again,
slide the rock back over the door
and stumble back to Bethlehem to wait?


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