John the Baptist

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And how shall I be lifted up?
The Father, white-hot, came down flaming to consume
The dead bull
But I have seen Him come down
Spirit-dove to water
To possess Living Lamb.
Here I sit.
Having already baptized my successor
I wait for no Elisha,
Yet am of a piece with Ijah:
Descended from ecstatic heights
To this hidden dankness.
The former *I* was lifted up bodily in fire--
I too shall be lifted up
But my fire thus far has mostly been borne of my own personality.
God was not in the whirlwind,
But He was as a still voice.
"He shall baptize you with fire":
Hell or Spirit, I know not.

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