Drop-kicking dropsy

After Luke 14:1-11

He is the point, or the example:

the man with dropsy, standing

there as they sit for a meal,

a man proven unclean,

it must be some sin

for otherwise he’d be well,

and he stands there

in his suffering until

the question is asked:

it is right, it is lawful,

is it legal to heal this man,

to heal him on this day,

this sacred day. No one

answers because to answer

is to shatter a belief,

a system, a culture.

In the silence he heals

the man, who’s sent away

but the silence remains,

a silence profound,

a silence burning.

Photograph by Rob Curran via Unsplash. Used with permission.