I

The dust lifts up
beneath the iron tread

A rust-red veil
across the gathered mass

The crowd revolves
a wheel before the dead

Yet cannot turn
as suffering comes to pass

The road grows thin
a single bleeding seam

A towpath drawn
through unrepentant night

A funnel where
the flow forgets the stream

And portents lean
with paralysing might

O Mother, Axis of the Spheres
Guide the Word through endless years

II
Between the bodies
locked in dread and smoke

She stands unmoved
a stone within the storm

A quiet deep enough
to crack the yoke

A stillness colder
than a star’s last form

No plea escapes her
none is needed here

For grief has ground her
into something vast

A vigil held
beyond the reach of fear

Where all beginnings
gather at the last

O Mother, Axis of the Spheres
Hold the light the soul reveres

III
He sees a woman
finite, carved by toil

Whose hands once drew him
from the shapeless clay

Her mortal frame
still rooted in the soil

Yet bearing light
no void can strip away

He sees his mother
centre, weight, and stay

Whose breath now measures
passion unexplored

Her silence now
reveals the bloody way

The path where love
and agony consort

O Mother, Axis of the Spheres
Grant the grace that conquers fear

IV
He sees Theotokos
the gate of flame

The threshold where
the Infinite took breath

The Mother of the God
he comes to claim

Whose radiance stands
stalwart before death

In her he sees
the womb before the dawn

Where galaxies were shaped
without a sound

Where light was braided
long before it shone

And darkness learned
the limits of its bound

O Mother, Axis of the Spheres
Spin the worlds that time adheres

V

And seeing her
he knows the primal throne

The feminine
that shadows fear and fire

The well from which
all forms of life are known

The depth where gods
return when they expire

And though the Cross
awaits its final word

And night prepares
to take by force the day

He meets her gaze
and something vast is stirred

And even void
withdraws its ancient sway

O Mother, Axis of the Spheres
Through your gaze the cosmos steers