Why do we fear
our comrades
from the underworld?

They represent the reality
that underlies, undergirds us.

If we are willing,
they reveal
the truth beneath
our wearying effort
to control, stifle, fathom,
that which we fear will fracture us.

Where darkness and light meet–
    beneath the covers in an unfamiliar hotel,
    amid the cables and tubes in ICU,
    at the cluttered desk when the job overwhelms,
    staring into the face of the crumbling relationship,
    at the cemetary gate–
there is where we meet ourselves
and whatever we know of God.

This is the gift
of our sisters and brothers
from the underworld.

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.