Sunday, June 14, 2015

Healing Quartet


After Acts 3:1-10

The carriers:
We carry him each day,
legs withered, muscles shadowed,
weakness and dependency
utter and complete, to the gate
to beg, the be able to beg
for alms, for life,
each day.

The voice (telling, commanding):
Get up, walk

(stands, walks, leaps, jumps)

The beggar:
The words came sideways.
I expected alms, some small thing
but the words came instead,
and then a hand,
and then my life.

The high priest:
Who is this voice, speaking
sideways, this peasant uneducated
in the law, this peasant who lectures,
his words knifing into accusations
against the rulers, against us,
against me. Like the one
who crossed us before.
Like the nations,
we rage.


Illustration: Peter Healing the Crippled Beggar at the Temple Gate – tapestry by Raphael; The Vatican.

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