Baptism

Plunge me
Plunge me into the dark deep,
cosmic chaos.
Bury me in the watery grave.

The dark diluvian waves

Batter my flesh.
Struggling to breath, struggling to survive,
My arms and legs burn in heated exhaustion.
The water wins.
The great I falters and crumbles and dissipates
Under the relentless assault.
I am undone.

In the darkness there is nothing,

No this, no that.
The dark waters cover all.
The great dreams we dreamed,
The great thoughts we thought,
The great deeds we did,
All gone.
All failures and successes,
Every sadness and every joy
Vanished, gone.
Only nothingness.
Only absence.
In the dark there is only the formless and the void.

Suddenly a voice.
From beyond all that is and is not,
“Let there be light.”
Like lighting the Word pierces this dead sea
now teeming with life.
New form, new creation,
Everything is new.
I arise to a new day, a new hope, a new man.

dougfloyd
1/23/2003