Jerusalem's Gate

Its a terrifying thing to be loved

Truly loved.

To know that someone is willing to take everything they are and

everything they might be

and hand it joyously

to you.

Freely,

without a solitary thought on the cost.

What could be more valuable?

And yet,

it demands, open handed, that you be worthy of it,

that you put flesh upon its faith.

How can you

With all your faults and ritual mistakes be trusted with something like that?

You are you

Fragile, mortal, ignorant, and cruel

There are no secrets in your past,

not to you.

Love says:

I know you.

I trust you.

Take my hand, leap off the cliff, and I will prove you were made for this.

Safer to hide

You will break it

and prove you are just what you loathe

the one who found beauty, and taught it pain

callous. careless. cruelty.

Look away

let it die of neglect.

Better to stay small and overlooked

To bury the future in mountains of past

Than to carry the truth unobscured

"Who are you?

I never knew you.

Begone."