My name is Legion

Legion were my hauntings,

and numerous the years of their torments.

Great was my nakedness,

and multiple the chains and shackles

that lay rusting among the weeds,

failed and broken.

Vast was my hopelessness,

deep my despair,

and terrible the fear

evoked by my unholy presence.

Many were my dwellings

among the tombs outside the city.

Considering myself dead,

I was at home there;

and at the same time, lost.

Manifold were the blessings

from the hand of the Galilean;

who arrived, uninvited,

at this desolate place,

to speak his words of healing,

hope,

liberty and life.

They sent him away;

I would have gone with him.

“Return to your people,”

he told me. “Be a living declaration

of the wonders of God.”

I did as he said.

My heart,

however,

followed him to Jerusalem.

© Ken Rookes 2016