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.