XII
DAWN

You are white like the sky in the east
is white at dawn, just before the sun frees           Hosea 6:3.
the earth from the limbo of night:
you gave the whiteness of dawn to our life
which is the dawning of death, the door
to eternal life; white like the pillar of cloud           Exodus 13: 21-22.
which guided the people of the Lord
through the desert during the day.
White like the snow on remote mountain
peaks, surrounded by the heavens
where the sunlight always shines;
from your body (which is the highest peak
of life) fall crystal pure waters
that reflect light from the heavens
and flow through the deep caverns
of darkness hemmed in by the abyss.
Like the highest point of the night,
like the moon that foreshadows the dawn
to those who are lost in the depths,
your snowy-white body, the apex
of humanity and origin of the rivers,
brings an eternal dawn to our night!