The words of Anna

After Luke 2:22-38

The old woman, revered

and often feared for the words

which would tumble, rumble

from within, the words anticipating 

what was to come, this old woman

sees the child,

just another child,

just another ceremony,

another ritual,

and she knows Jerusalem

is redeemed, that Israel

is saved, that the ceremony

if purification is turned on its head,

as the child purifies the temple,

purified the priests, purifies the people.

And the old woman,

the prophetess,

is silenced.

Photograph by Paolo Bendandi via Unsplash. Used with permission.

To see the child

After Luke 2:22-38

To see the child, this child,

to see the tiny life like

all tiny lives, yet unlike,

to see the one, this child,

the one promised,

the one revealed,

the one anticipated

like the water quenching

the thirst of the desert,

the one expected since

the biting of the fruit,

this is what I was born for,

to know, to see the child,

this child, this revelation.

We all bear the name

of Simeon.

Photograph by Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash. Used with permission.

The mark of Simeon

After Luke 2:22-38

Aged, and aging still,

each day I feel the creak

and rub and grind of bones, 

infirmities of growing old,

but not yet old enough, hair

fading and gray, back

beginning to arc into stooping,

but not yet old enough,

not yet ready to be embraced

and wrapped by the shroud,

not yet, not until I see

the one, the king, not

just another baby or child,

but the One.

It was promised.

Photograph by Omar Lopez via Unsplash. Used with permission.