A religious costume
is more likely to cloak impurity
than to reveal purity.
Purity is more a dancing
than an achievement,
and it dances through every heart
in unique rhythm.
Purity washes the soul with tears
whenever there is a breakthrough.
We have seen purity manifest
in strong men, in hard women,
in awful children.
We have known purity
by the generous act,
the comforting smile,
the glistening eye.


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Copyright © 1998 by Alan Harris. All rights reserved.