Friday, April 17, 2020

Grumbles


After Luke 15:1-7

What is this, this gathering
with convicts, with thieves,
with abusers, with traffickers,
with the dirty and smelling
and foul-mouthed, with the profane?
How does one avoid that stain?
Why embrace it so eagerly,
so calmly, not even washing
hands?

We jostle to be closer,
to hear what he says,
and he looks, not
at our faces but
at our hearts, as if
he reads our minds.
He gathers his arms 
around us, filthy rabble 
that we are. This is why,
he says.

Photograph by Nathan Dunlao via Unsplash. Used with permission.

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