Magpie Tales #8...Phoenix

The essence of a phoenix
if it could be captured
would be captured in an egg

A delicate shell on the outer
a beating heart within
A hooked beak to emerge
milky translucent skin

From the ashes of a life comes a life
From the kin of kin comes kin
An animal dies and decays
The phoenix comes from within

Here rise the phoenix! Rise til the end of days!
Death brings you, life takes you,
He works in mysterious ways

A house burns down,
stone scorches, people might die
from the ashes emerges a phoenix
who will navigate the sky

No use! No use man! To catch it is to err!
The phoenix lives! It dies!
It is an answered prayer

It carries the soul of the dead one
to the heavenly clouds above
A fleeting glance, a second's worth
And you have missed its flight of love

Like the Saviour on the cross,
the phoenix brings hope, (and, through strife,)
the forgiveness of sins
by rising from death to new life

This poem was inspired by the picture on the egg, and by the idea of the egg itself (and because it's Easter, the story of the Resurrection)