The time comes

After Hebrews 11:23-27

The time comes when the sand

burns in purity; I walk barefoot

without scorching my feet.

The time comes when the bush

burns in righteousness

without being consumed.

The time comes when God

walks and I hide my face away,

until I can see only his back.

The time comes when I

see God and die to what is now

but not die to what will be.

Photograph by Paul Brennan via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

Burning bush

Artist, dressed in a shroud,

shoes removed, carries

a burning bush; illuminates

a forest consumed by flame,

the hiding places and denials

of dark woods exposed. And so

becomes a narrator,

a storyteller, a light bearer,

a commandment carrier;

opens eyes but first

his own. Cannot look full

into the face. Only a partial view

from the back allowed.

or else death. The ground hot,

holy.

Illustration: Man the Forest by Anselm Kiefer (1971), private collection, San Francisco. This was one of the paintings included in the Anselm Kiefer exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art in London this past fall.