Words lash out, a rusted razor’s edge,
Grace unyielded, a fountain choked with stone,
Christ’s crimson tide, pent in a soul’s dark pledge,
Shrouds it thick, a strangling vine o’ergrown!
No soothing gale of speech breaks through the blight,
Though whispered beams could pierce the fractured crust,
Spirits shatter, entombed in voiceless night,
Aching for mercy’s breath, now ash and dust!