Grace for Granted

We groaned for grace, fell to our knees at last,
we two, in different ways: and then it came.
Amazing changes flexed their wings, as fast
as childbirth opens woman, grace laid claim.
The anger peeled away, the stone rolled back,
our Lazarus love awoke deep in our gaze;
we entered a transfigured zodiac
of dazzled moments, consecrated days.
But eyes adjust from cave to radiance,
and imperceptibly, small shift by shift,
as bleak estrangement slipped into past tense,
we took for granted, gradually, the gift.
The once-astonishing turned commonplace
and slowly, slowly, we grew used to grace.

Christine Whittemore