02/28/2024
GRAVEYARD REDEMPTION
You have traveled a long and rocky path for many, many years now,
Not knowing where you would sleep the next night.
You sat down on many gloomy days,
Exhausted, tears filling your eyes trying to gather
together,
all your wrongful and hurtful
deeds and thoughts.
Through all your
restless nights of drinking
your tea cup
filled with your tears of remorse,
you gathered all your
trash together
and threw them out your back door,
down the ally,
buried in Potter's Field,
never to see
the light of day.
Upon arriving home one day,
carrying a bouquet
of red roses
to signal a freedom
never known before,
a friendly, familial face stuck out his hand,
for a handshake
he desired.
He talked and talked,
and told you how much
he loved you. He smiled and joked
and laughed out loud,
for a care in this world,
he did not have.
You had known him
for quite sometime,
even unto the day
of his birth,
you knew the pain
that came with him.
You loved him
and he loved you,
so the story goes
But suddenly,
later that afternoon,
he brought into
your house a large
black trash bag,
as big as a truck.
Along with it,
he brought along a friend,
to help him dump the
garbage all throughout
the house:
Upon the kitchen floor,
and the table,
down the hall,
the living room even
on the sofa and the
guest bed.
He dumped the full load,
of garbage upon you,
in one swift and
thoughtless moment,
a load too much
for you to bear,
for he did not care.
It was a load
that wasn't all yours
to take but a load
that others were to share.
But NO!
They dumped it all on you.
But rise up my butterfly,
shake off your prison,
your cocoon of
shame and guilt,
for you have been
redeemed of your past,
of those lonely,
tear-filled nights while
others cursed your
guilt-ridden body.
You are redeemed,
from a curse,
that you did not deserve.
You are freed from
slavery by a lamb
anointed of God,
and you now have
a mansion
in another realm, a
place of timelessness,
and beauty abounds
without words
to describe it.
You are a star.
Never forget that!
...by Dorian Sandlin
With Julie Spears Sandlin.
