Flashback Friday: Sheol

I wrote this in college at eighteen or nineteen years old. Note Sheol is the place of the dead in ancient Hebrew.

Sheol

CristiYor / Pixabay

There used to be others here, once.
But that was a long time ago.
They told me pretty stories, fables,
Things I have never felt,
Touched, heard, or tasted.
She, I think she was my mother,
Spoke of color and light,
She spoke of stars above,
A world without pain so constant
You forget it is there,
But it was all a lie.
There is no light,
Just this suffocating darkness.
I trip and stumble,
My fingers are oozing again.
I place them in my mouth,
And taste salt, metal, grime.
I am down to the wiggly long
Slimy creatures since the carcasses
Are stripped to the hard parts.
Once again I fling myself upward,
Toward the alleged stars,
My claws are outstretched, ready
To tear down anything they grasp.
I fall back to the wet, black ooze;
I hear a crack and feel a pain
Intense enough for me to notice.
I run a hand down my leg. Yes.
Tensing, I snap the hard part
Back into place. It is agony,
But I am used to agony,
What else is there?
Then IT comes,
This nameless thing I
Cannot describe with any
Of my four senses.
It burns my eyes and melts
The comforting darkness,
As I realize, too late
That maybe, just maybe
The myths were true after all.
I retreat on hand and knee,
Stumbling back, trying
To escape this brightness
But even behind my eyes it seeps
Finally, my darkness shelters me
Again; yet IT is still there.
A voice calls from IT,
“Come child, come
Come to me, and face yourself,
Surrender to me
And I will cleanse you
Believe, and I will save you.
Come, child, come,
Come serve me and be free.”
I cry out, ragged, “NO!”
And it vanishes with a sigh
But my pounding heart tells me
It will be back.
For me.
For you.

[tweetthis display_mode=”box”]”It was all a lie. There is no light, Just this suffocating darkness.” #free #poetry “Sheol”[/tweetthis]

Pair this with: 1 Peter 2:9 – But you are a chosen race [people], a royal priesthood, a dedicated [holy] nation, [God’s] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth [declare] the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.