Undying Soul

Though I have walked upon the Way awhile

No saint am I, no haloed head aflame,

I am the mendicant with toothless smile,

The leper and the cripple bear my name.

I am the representative of grief,

The acolyte who cannot relinquish sin

I am the wayside weed, the blackened leaf,

Receiver of the sordid mid the din

Of life that stammers and of life that fails.

Immortal though I am my body lies

Upon the heaving tides and rarely sails

To those far shores to meet the ancient wise.

I am the cry of the wounded beast,

The abandoned child, the innocent slain,

The virgin mutilated at Orgy's feast.

I have died a thousand deaths, shall die again

Until the hand of God uplifts and heals

This fragmented spirit to make whole,

Breaking through the dense and hardened seals

That have contained my pure, undying soul.