Receded

Behold the man who stepped onto the stage
and rocked the underfoot until it cracked
We hear about his words, his feet, his rage
That to this world he brought what it had lacked

He was a leader crownless, still so veiled
A king to pull the empire down for us
Alive, not stopped, and buried not, not nailed
Please come and eat the bread; not treasonous

He comes to tend the flesh that aches, that's burned
He comes to crash the sky upon the earth
His works beyond the wisdom that we learned
Now hear: there's stories told of death and birth

He comes to take the dead alive
He comes to end all worldly strife
To join or sunder man and wife
So leap into a headlong dive

So long ago some acts offended him
A father's mother's father's mom and more
The fruit of thought, and life, and fickle whim
One act brought onto us the guilt we wore

Release the stigma from that far off day
We have the words of old: reborn, retold
Recoil: our blood and pain he washed away
To him from him for us, beware, behold

He comes to shake us to the core
Comes to right, to light, for order
He was and is, the first, before
Self-told self-sold self-awarder

A tale of deeds, of tears by distance blurred
Who knows what was, from edited perspectives
With reed in after hand, not seen but heard
as gleaned by philosopher detectives

A story grown but all our ken impeded
A figure rising through a mist receded