Of Pearls and Swine

I awoke in a nightmarish sweat…  
Helpless verses in the mud
words of my breath 
and pounds of my flesh 
strewn carelessly like alphabet magnets on a nursery floor 
…Curled up impervious within my shell, 
head pounding with the trampling hooves,
but in my ears, only silence… 
Then a single pearl in the muck scratched an unforeseen itch, 
a fleck in the darkness sparked luminescent connection, 
a breadcrumb seed became a glorious tree 
…and I breathed and unfurled to find 
my bruises were small and fleeting, 
And slept easy  
in the audacity of a verdict 
that is certain to be love