When Lazarus Awakes

by CWK

We came; we saw; we wept.

We bowed our heads.

In resignation, then, we said,

"part of life is death."

Then, we packed up and left

the dead in dirt still fresh,

and beat retreat in sorrowed silence –

Well, I am back, defiant.

– back, but not to grieve.

For the life of me, I do not believe

that part of life is death.

I believe that part of death is life:

I believe, with every breath,

that death leads –

like the point of a knife – to life.

Death is not a part of life;

It's a small part, just the start, of life.

O, Death, where is your power?

you are just the seed of life's flower;
just a second in life's hour;

just a note of life’s symphony.

Death is big; life, way bigger:

Life is the tree of which death is the sliver.

Anyway, here is what I came to say

(besides what I just said).
Here is why I came today:

I came to raise the dead.

I have not come to make amends,

(or make  more (or more, or less) friends),

(or play the game inside your head).

I am come, again –

I am come to raise the dead.

I am back, with hunger lean –

not to make things quiet.

I'm back to make a scene;

back to rouse a riot;
back to start a fight;
back to cause strife;
back, with life, rife.

I am back to see earth shake.

Back, to raise the stakes.

Back, to see the look on your face

when Lazarus awakes.

We have lain in graves

things we ought have saved.

It may be hard to figure,

but I did not come to mourn,

or weep in sackcloth torn.

I have come back bitter.

I have come with my hair shorn

and my hand on the trigger;

I have come, the grave digger.

I have come to make waves.

I have come to rob the grave.

I saw your heart break.
I saw you standing, frantic,

by a tombstone in the winter,

and lay a flower by the grave.

My purpose is much different;
I come to pull

a flower from the ground.

I come to cull

life where death was found.

I came to turn things around;
I came to turn

the world upside down.
I came to undo crimes,
and turn death on a dime.

I am here to extinguish the pyre,
and break open the urn.
I'm here to light a fire,
and watch it burn. 

I have not come to hope for the best,

or lay anything to rest,

or say my last peace –
I came looking for a fight;

I came to set things right,

and set in motion the deceased.

I have come the chains to break,

and see the look on your face,

when Lazarus awakes.

Have you not been remiss

over things lost? Endings worst?

Have you not wished

that it all could be reversed?

I have wished so often:

wished to dig up coffins;

wished to jump inside the hearse

and put it in reverse.

Do you believe in fish and bread?

I do. And I have come to claim the dead.

I have come to see earth shake.

I have come to see

death retreat in shame replete.

I have come to raise the stakes.

I have come to see

the look on your face,

when Lazarus awakes.

Anyway, here is what I came to say

(besides what I just said).
Here is why I came today:

I came to raise the dead.