Lantern-Hearted Girl

Old glass lantern, beveled, bright

Once a jewel blazing

Through shadow and frost

A warm and welcome sight

Since benighted, cracked with shame,

Clouded from selfish smoke,

Wracked with rattling pains—

If I cast it in the ocean

to grind within the surf

Will it crumble?
If I leave it to scorching sunlight

pierced by noonday rays

Will it burst?

Or will the water flow like justice

Scrubbing off the grime,

The glass re-fuse by 

Faithfulness stretching from the skies?

Can my lantern glow once more

And pulse with shimmering life

Though it has been neglected

To dust instead of light?

with props to 2 Corinthians 4, Florence + the Machine, Langston Hughes, Third Day, and “Once Upon a Time”