what does it mean to be re-born (on Easter)

what does it mean to be re-born?

the stars don’t reveal their secrets,

so confounding us.

emblems bright

are birthed in darkness.

swirls of space dust

violently collapse inward,

shrouded by night, and

briefly

opaque,

before their outward glow.

what does it mean to be re-born?

birth so much resembles death.

nurseries are a violent place:

the swirl and

the collapse;

brilliance enveloped in black

and blood.

can one enter

again

their mother’s womb

a second time?

why would anyone want to?

what does it mean that life could come from death?

that particles once drifting

or static

could yet compose a new song;

that a heart once stone

and hardened

could yet be flesh once more?

from dust we came

and to dust,

we shall return

but not before the cosmic crash

when dark meets light

where divinity meets skin

when death is swallowed up by life—

two worlds brought close

from a chasm

we could could never cross.

(we were galaxies away)

yet as a voice calls to

the empty grave,

these words will not

empty

return.

they will bounce back,

ricochet off stardust;

echo across eternity.

they will dance their way

to hearts that have been thawing.

and dwell there.

those hearts will see the truth

and understand.

they will settle and startle and know—

that what had died

is alive again.

(and that we, too, can be re-born)