Grace


 * Jean Valjean **

You spoke those words with eyes weighed by gravity On the tip of my tongue I taste the blood of the memory I soon shall step out of a grayer, dimmer world Wrinkled scars like the mark of a sinner  on my cheek Yet the very air seems to quiver with the coming of light Undimmed by the ice of your heart so cold

My toes curled up against the stinging cold shoulders hunched for so long fighting gravity As the frosted winter night cracks open at first light the shadow of injustice dissolves into the fine dust of memory a long-forgotten salty sting wets my cheek I welcome back a brave new world

thriving in endless fields of dreams  too big for this world good will seems to beam anew in each face, a shelter from cold an unfamiliar grin splits the deep creases of grimaces on my weary cheek Time unbinds the confines of cruel gravity <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a half-forgotten name springs <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> to my lips like holy water from the fount of memory <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lifting unchained arms and unchained soul so light

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Blinded by glory, stepping at last into the light <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Have I been missed in the workings of the world? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">19 wasted years already fading with the distance of memory For Warm is the heart unchilled by the cold Strong is the pride unbent by painful gravity <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The blush of the living seeps back to my cheek

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I shall speak as I wish, with spite or with cheek <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Revel in the liberties of this intolerable light <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">dare to challenge the entanglements of mortal gravity Mine for the taking is this hopeful world <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I lead the thundering charge to rid us of the scourge so cold <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Those years of oppression engraved in my memory

Inescapable pain, I leave behind in closed memory <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">let the irrepressible love of humanity warm this cheek <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have fire enough to beat back the bitterest cold <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have fire enough to rival Prometheus’ light <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">already cramped by the laws of the mortal world <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">for triumphing angels obey no gravity

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I am freed from the burdens of gravity that linger only in the crevices of memory <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">though I bear the pain of the world upon this aged cheek <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For the summer’s Light shall again soon thaw winter’s cold