Three Poems for These Holy Days

Holy Week
 
It’s time to walk tenderly
along the rutted road
feet blistered bare and dusty
trouble plodding doggedly
at your heels
 
When hope is all that remains
and your palms are rope-burned red
make of faith and doubt
a lifeline, not a noose
and grasp tight despite the pain
 
Gather up grief and despair
lay them in baskets
woven from reed and tears
then lay your woes
before the one who
will not stay entombed

Build an altar
caged by ribs
for the one who animates
your every breath
from birth to death
who soon (all too soon)
will cradle you home

What He Said After Dinner 
In a moment I am leaving you
In a moment I am gone
returning to the One from whom
I have come

It will be time for you to be lost without me
Time for you to wander the landscape
of your familiar only to find it
utterly desolate completely foreign
 
I can’t tell you how to manage
how to create a life from ashes
only to say that you will do it
 
It is your nature to grasp
the limb of hope
hold fast against the river of events
that will sweep me away
 
When you arrive safe on the other shore
you will wail gnash your teeth curse
the one who made us
 
After you have blamed yourself
for what you did not do
you will catch sight of me
scratch your head and wonder
convinced that you are mistaken
that my return is impossible

Listen to your heart leap
with recognition
believe
In that moment the entire world
will change

Wrestling the Good from Friday
 
On this day of your suffering
and crucifixion we
on the far side of the resurrection
remember
more than we mourn—  
Our hope refuses to die
but what of yours, Dear Teacher?
 
Do you know hanging
from your cross
as the sun is eclipsed
that you have not been forsaken
that “It is finished”
becomes a beginning?
 
O Sweet Savior
we weep for the many times
we did not understand or believe
the truths you tried to tell us.
 
For us the tomb is always
empty come Easter.
Though we have failed you
though we do not deserve it
salvation arrives.

We live through
these bleak days
because, finally,
we believe in you.
Now, we beg you
just this once,
to believe in us.