darkness or light—
neither noise
nor silence—
how readily you volunteer
to wade out ahead of me
and strip me of all of my
nonessentiality;
it is your murk which clarifies
the complicated truths
of this blandness,
this coolness, this need
to be aloof.
Such a circumstantial absence,
such ambiguous
truth—it is you
who comes to teach me,
without absolutes,
how yet I might live
in a world that needs ministry
in fullness—
and yet
at the slightest
remove.