Like the iris
in the side yard,
I have stopped blooming.
Dig me up, O Spirit,
and split me; where I have grown
calloused, break me open;
then drive me deeper
into darkness,
where I wait for you
to pull my yearning
to live fully
into the light;
then let me offer
my purple and gold freely
to all who pass by.
Carol Tyx teaches American literature at Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
This appears in the March 2008 issue of Sojourners
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