Beloved's Body

 

Beloved, one moment-
Behold yourselves as I do,
Your skin, so milky white
unspoiled by time,
Your eyes as bright as
blueberries, ripening in the sun;
Your hair as beautiful as the sands,
as the fresh bark of trees,
yet as soft as silken scarves;
Your body as strong as mountains
as graceful as the doe by the stream
as delicate as thin-drawn glass;
Your lips as beautiful as the red
cardinal, or rose hummingbird in flight;

Dear Beloved, you are all these things
And yet, though your hair is long and
beautiful and catches just the right breeze
Your heart is does not fit you any longer
Your heart is a spoiled as an apple,
fallen from the tallest tree;
Your spirit withers quicker
than flowers, cut from their roots of life;
Your soul as wicked as the vultures
that gnaw and tear at their victims flesh.

My dear, my love,
Your heart is as rotten as all these
and as dry as desert lands;
Beloved! Does your heart not ache?
Does it not feel out of place?
You keep such a beautiful temple,
yet the beauty is on the outside
while the inner temple reeks of death.
Open your heart to Love,
Be loved, so that you may love.
Even if you bring about no change,
you will be loved, for His nature
Loves, no matter the condition,
no matter how dry your desert,
or how your heart rots in your chest.

Does it not feel out of place?
To clothe with such splendor
such a wilting piece of fruit?
Why would you cover
a thing so rotten,
with silks so precious?
Would you not carry in those clothes
a jewel so precious?
Would you not care for what is
wrapped in your innermost,
and only then clothe it in beauty?
Would you not do so only
to put the deepest beauty on display?
Would you not want the inner
to be so deserving of the outer?

Beloved,
clothe yourself in scarlet,
treat yourself to the sweetest
of all fruits,
and the most precious
of all jewels,
-but only after your heart
has basked in the most
honorable of all things.
Love.
Love from a King.

© copyright by Michèle Aimée Lahaie, 2009