I

A dark vow

that married death and life.

The branches of the

Tree of Life intertwined.

A match made on earth

with roots dug deep

in fecund soil,

and arms outstretched 

to Heaven,

before a great cloud of

witnessing stars

in the dark night.

II

We are the bastard children

of an unholy union.

Orphaned in the feud between

a Queen and a Tyrant

yet bound to both - 

destined to repeat

their bloody history.

III

Blood begets blood

death begets death.

The dense soil readied

with generations of

human compost and refuse.

Death cannot be escaped.

Could even God himself

dirty his hands with the earth 

and not succumb?

IV

A tree is more than a tree

when it is cut down and

fashioned into a cross.

Flesh wounds are more than just

when they are on the hands 

of God.

Death is made less than death

when defeated and subjugated.

Man is made truly man

when resurrected.

V

The fruit of the spirit are ripening

on a tree with blood in its veins.

Come sit under the shade of growing leaves

as we stare into the persecuted skies

and dream of our place among the stars.

Death and life are intertwined,

with each other

and with us. 

But the shed blood no longer is our own.