Listening to Sufjan Stevens’ “No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross”

Listening to Sufjan Stevens’“No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross”
What we long forhas turned from us,revealing its long backside
and its even longer shadow.And still,even here,
a voice as pristineas distilled waterflows. It murmurs
in this desolate place,which we find so familiarand so terrible
The voice causes that which we long forto pause,
to glance back for a momentinto the agonizing wakeit leaves. From
that raised-up place,from that agony and bloodabove us, there
is movement and recognition.There is a moment ofdistraction from what
must be accomplishedand fulfilled.In this awful place, in
this long and exhaustingrealm, it is the voicethat sustains.
It ripples andcuts through the murk.It is then—
the curtain tornthe hands wrung out,the knees bruised to
the color of monarch-wings—the song ends,and we can stand up
from the dark, bloody earthin a groping mannerand shiver.
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